Trailblazing Black business mogul George E. Johnson, who built Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, dies at 99

Johnson, who was born in a sharecropper’s shack in Mississippi, helped establish one of the largest Black-owned banks as Johnson Products left a lasting cultural imprint.

George E. Johnson, the trailblazing entrepreneur who transformed the Black hair-care industry and built one of the most successful Black-owned businesses in American history, has died at the age of 99.

The New York Times reported that Johnson died Monday at his home in Chicago, with his second wife, Madeline Murphy Rabb, confirming the cause of death as respiratory illness.

Johnson’s story was one of remarkable ascent. Born in 1927 in a sharecropper’s shack in Richton, Mississippi, he moved to Chicago with his mother at age 2 and left school in the 11th grade. According to the Times, he began working menial jobs as a child before eventually landing at Samuel B. Fuller’s cosmetics company, where he started as a salesman and later developed his first product, a men’s hair relaxer called Ultra Wave.

In 1954, Johnson partnered with his wife, Joan, and a barber to launch Johnson Products. The Times detailed how he secured his initial $250 loan only after telling a finance company the money was for a vacation, having been turned down elsewhere for what one branch called a “ridiculous” idea. That early struggle later inspired him to help establish the Independence Bank of Chicago, one of the largest Black-owned banks in the country.

The company’s breakthrough came when Johnson adapted his product for women, creating Ultra Sheen, a home-use straightener that reduced the smoke associated with traditional hot-comb methods. Sales surged, and by the 1960s, Johnson Products controlled an estimated 80 percent of the Black hair-care market.

As the Times noted, the company was listed on the American Stock Exchange in January 1971, in what was described as the first Black-owned company on a major American exchange.

Beyond its products, Johnson Products left a lasting cultural imprint by becoming the first Black-controlled company to sponsor a national television program, backing the iconic dance show “Soul Train” for decades.

The company faced significant challenges in later years, including a federal investigation, shifting hairstyle trends and stiff competition from Revlon. The Times reported that Joan Johnson gained control of the business following the couple’s 1989 divorce and later sold it in 1993, though the two remarried in 1995. She died in 2019.

Johnson is survived by his wife Madeline, his four children, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.