My first look at Ebony’s first issue, Nov. 1945

The Ebony magazine cover showed a black boy haloed by a group of white boys about the same age. There was nothing threatening about the photo: In a show of harmony, one white kid was hugging the black kid – who sat expressionless – and others were mugging for the camera.

I looked over the cover very carefully because holding it was as new to me as the magazine itself was nearly 75 years ago. It was the November 1945 edition of Ebony, the first issue of John H. Johnson’s magazine to showcase the beauty of black people.

I was browsing a 1960s copy of Ebony for research on another topic at the Charles L. Blockson Afro American Collection at Temple University when I realized that I had never actually seen the first issue. I had often read the story of how Johnson used a $500 loan from his mother to form Johnson Publishing Co. to produce first, Negro Digest in 1942, and then Ebony in 1945.

But I had never held a hard copy in my hands or even come across one at auction. So, I mentioned it to librarian Aslaku Berhanu. We have a copy, she said, and it made my day when she brought it out for me to see. I was curious about the contents of that first issue.

On its face, the magazine was not extraordinary; the history it embodied was its premium. Its content was an amalgam of stories about attempts at racial harmony and inspirational stories about blacks who were doing good: comedian Jack Benny’s sidekick Eddie “Rochester” Anderson (with photos of his wife Maymie, his home and mention of his $150,000 a year salary); African American writers, including Richard Wright and Eslanda Goode Robeson (wife of Paul Robeson); African art, singer Hazel Scott, and Major Wright, a former slave who owned a bank in Philadelphia.

Black movie stars and sports figures would become a staple in the magazine.

For African Americans, I’m sure this magazine was unbelievable. Finally, they could see themselves represented in ways that had never been shown before in the white media. They weren’t all poor and uneducated. Ebony presented them as a diverse population that was complex, not simple.

The magazine was continuing a tradition that had been established by black newspapers in cities and towns across the country. The Pittsburgh (PA) Courier, the New York Amsterdam News, the Baltimore (MD) Afro-American and the Chicago Defender had always kept them informed. Unlike the papers, there was no crime or misfits in Ebony.

In its Backstage column in that first edition, Ebony made its purpose quite clear:

“We’re rather jolly folks, we Ebony editors. We like to look at the zesty side of life. Sure, you can get all hot and bothered about the race question (and don’t think we don’t) but not enough is said about all the swell things we Negroes can do and will accomplish. Ebony will try to mirror the happier side of Negro life – the positive, everyday achievements from Harlem to Hollywood. But when we talk about race as the No. 1 problem of America, we’ll talk turkey.” (In 1965, the magazine committed an entire issue to race.)

Ebony came on the heels of  Negro Digest, a Reader’s Digest-style publication that grew out of Johnson’s job on an in-house publication at Supreme Life Insurance Co. There, he had culled stories from various black publications. In a year, Negro Digest’s circulation had jumped to 50,000 a month.

Johnson’s wife Eunice came up with the name Ebony. The magazine had the same format as Life magazine, but its contents were decidedly different. Ebony’s aim was to “show not only the Negroes but also white people that Negroes got married, had beauty contests, gave parties, ran successful businesses, and did all the other normal things of life,” Johnson has been quoted as saying.

That first issue sold at newsstands in Chicago for 25 cents, and the first run of 25,000 copies sold out.

Johnson decided to eschew advertising early on in Ebony: “I felt I had to have something of value first,” he said in a 1995 interview. “I wanted to meet the prevailing standards. I never wanted them lowered for me. The standards in the magazine business were membership in the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which meant I had to wait a year before becoming a member. When I called a potential advertiser, I never made buying Ebony a matter of conscience, only business.”

Here are some pages and stories from the November 1945 issue:

The University of Pennsylvania Museum makes plaster casts of African art in its collection, and offers them for sale.

 

Book boom for African American writers, include books pertaining to blacks and to the issue of race. Mentioned are the “long-struggling” Arna Bontemps, along with Margaret Walker and Frank Yerby, among others. Eslanda Goode Robeson is featured in a photo, whose caption tells of her trip “through the Dark Continent.” A diary of her travels, titled “African Journey,” was published in 1936.

 

Richard Wright’s “Native Son” is credited with opening the door for black writers. He was the only one making a good living from his novels.

 

Singer Hazel Scott moves from nightclubs to the more “respectable” concert stage. Her first love had always been classical music – Chopin and Dubussey – straight, no boogie beat. She was photographed by renowned African American photographer Gordon Parks.

 

The color line in Brazil separates people based on their economic status – and the chasm is very wide. People are looked down upon not because of their color but their poverty.

 

Major Richard Robert Wright, 91, owner of the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company in Philadelphia, was the subject of a rags-to-riches story. John H. Johnson would become the same. Wright’s bank was the only black bank in the North. The photos were taken by John W. Mosley, who shot many social and political events involving African Americans in Philadelphia.

 

Cartoons by Jay Jackson (left), who was listed as the art editor. Cartoons by E. Simms Campbell (right).