Jet magazines from the 1960s

In its heyday, Jet magazine was black folks’ ticket to their own world. It confounded the notion that they were lazy, had little to say that anyone cared about, and had never made history of any worth.

In its pages, they were beautiful. And talented. And had money (at least some of them). And lived well. And got married in lavish ceremonies. And were stars in Hollywood movies. And marched for their civil rights. And died for their civil rights. And prayed. And hurt each other. And looked good in bathing suits.

In other words, they were all shades of human.

This digest-sized magazine was “the” read in black homes, barber shops and beauty shops. Strewn atop coffee tables for kinfolks and friends to devour. Even today, you’ll likely find old copies of it and its sister magazine Ebony in basements because most people never threw them away.  

There was never an Ebony or Jet in my home when I was growing up. I’m sure I must have come across both magazines someplace, somewhere, but I have no memory of them. Later, as an adult, I do recall reading Jet while I waited in a beauty shop for my hair to be done. It was that kind of magazine, one you just had to pick up and nibble on – the articles were usually very short – and you always found something new.

That’s why at auction recently, I snapped up 10 editions of Jet, lying there on the auction table among items from the estate of a black sailor. There was no address label on the magazines, so he likely picked them up at a store and saved them. They were all from 1963 to 1971.

The sailor apparently kept these particular magazines because they chronicled pieces of the civil rights movement of the1960s and its heroes:

Five carried cover photos or stories connected to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: the Selma to Montgomery March (article in photo on left), the Memphis garbage workers strike, his wife Coretta and their children, King’s assassination (photo on right), Ralph Bunche’s birthday tribute to King and a special report on King’s dream and family. Two others were about the Kennedy brothers – John F. and his legacy to blacks and Robert F.’s assassination. (I also loved the old Duke hair products ads of future “Shaft” star Richard Roundtree.)

There were stories of the most important news events of the week, along with news based on such topics as sports, entertainment, education, business and society. And the familiar bathing suit centerfold (whatever happened to those women?).

Back then, Jet could fit easily into your hand (it’s size was 4 ¼” x 6″) and it contained 66 pages. The 1971 issue had grown up a bit – to 5 ¼” x 7 ½”. It had become the size of a recent Jet that I picked up at a bookstore.

That’s where the similarities ended, though. On the cover of the 1971 issue was Whitney M. Young Jr., executive director of the National Urban League, who had unexpectedly died. Inside, the content was pure Jet. On the cover of the Nov. 1/8, 2010, was Janet Jackson in a hot red dress from the movie “For Colored Girls.” That copy – which resembled a slick version of Ebony – was pretty flimsy and lightweight, especially in its content.

The change was understandable – if not a little too late. Jet, Ebony and the Johnson Publishing Co. are fighting to survive. Just this week, the company founded by John H. Johnson and his wife Eunice announced that it had sold its Michigan Avenue building – which had been its home since 1972 – to Columbia College Chicago. Over the past year of so, news of the company’s financial woes have seeped out: It reorganized its staff, laid off some top executives and had talks with Magic Johnson Enterprises about selling to the former basketball star.

The company’s troubles are a sign of the times (declining ad revenues are hurting many publications) and demonstrate its sluggishness at recognizing the changes in its readers’ tastes and interests. A few comments I came across on blogs were divided on whether to help save Ebony and Jet by subscribing to the magazines. Some thought the company had failed to be relevant anymore.

It didn’t start out that way. When both were founded, blacks got most of the news about themselves from local black newspapers in cities that had them. A few of those newspapers were mailed to subscribers in other cities, but there were no orginally reported news magazines like Jet or slick magazines like Ebony.

As a young man, Johnson worked at Supreme Life Insurance Company where he compiled a digest of newspaper articles. Figuring that other blacks would like the same info, he conceived the idea of Negro Digest. When others doubted that it would work, his mother had faith in him. She used her furniture as collateral for a $500 loan, and he persuaded 3,000 of the insurance company’s policyholders to subscribe at $2 each. With his wife, he published the first copy of Negro Digest in June 1942.

The magazine did not take off like Johnson’s next venture, Ebony, aimed at showing “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,” he said in an interview.

In Jet, Johnson founded a different type of magazine. Bite-sized and chocked full of news and black and white photos, it was billed as “The Weekly Negro News Magazine.” Both magazines flourished for decades, and now despite their troubles, they are testaments to one man’s doggedness and storybooks of our past.

At the auction, I wasn’t sure what the Jet magazines would go for or who would bid against me. When they came up, I was one of two bidders, but I was able to get them all for $11.

Jet and Ebony magazines don’t come up often at the auctions I attend, and I was happy to get them. They apparently had been prized by this sailor because they were in very good condition. Too bad the company hasn’t been able to survive so intact.