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 helped transform the Black hair-care industry with Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen while building one of the nation’s most successful Black-owned businesses, has died. He was 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.
His life traced an extraordinary path from poverty in Mississippi to Wall Street. Born in 1927 in a sharecropper’s shack near Richton, Mississippi, Johnson moved to Chicago with his mother as a toddler. He began working as a child, shining shoes by age 8, and later left high school before graduating to work full time.
What followed was not simply the creation of a successful cosmetics company. Johnson built a business around Black consumers at a time when much of corporate America either ignored them or treated them as an afterthought.
From a Sharecropper’s Shack to the Black Hair-Care Industry
Johnson eventually went to work for Samuel B. Fuller, the pioneering Black businessman whose cosmetics operation became an important training ground for Black entrepreneurs. Johnson worked in sales before developing a men’s hair-straightening product known as Ultra Wave.
In 1954, Johnson and his wife, Joan, launched Johnson Products Company. Early financing was difficult to secure. According to published accounts, Johnson obtained an initial $250 loan only after saying the money was for a vacation because lenders had rejected his business idea.
That rejection would remain part of the larger story of his career: a Black entrepreneur trying to build for a market that traditional lenders and corporate decision-makers routinely underestimated.
Johnson began selling his early products from the back of a station wagon.
The company’s fortunes changed dramatically as Johnson expanded beyond men’s grooming products. Ultra Sheen, developed for women as an at-home straightening system, became a major success. Johnson Products would eventually command an estimated 80% of the Black hair-care market during its rise.
Then came Afro Sheen.
As natural hairstyles became inseparable from the Black pride and Black Power movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, Afro Sheen met a cultural moment far larger than the cosmetics aisle. The brand celebrated natural Black hair at a time when the Afro had become a statement of identity, beauty and political consciousness. Accounts of the company’s history describe Afro Sheen’s rise as closely tied to that broader cultural movement.
Johnson Products Broke Barriers From Wall Street to ‘Soul Train’
Johnson Products made business history when it became the first Black-owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange, a milestone widely dated to 1971.
That achievement carried particular weight because Johnson had built the company during an era when Black entrepreneurs faced entrenched barriers to credit, investment and access to mainstream distribution.
Johnson’s own experiences with financing also helped shape his interest in Black banking. He was involved in establishing Chicago’s Independence Bank, which grew into one of the nation’s most prominent Black-owned financial institutions.
But Johnson Products’ cultural reach extended far beyond business.
The company became the first Black-controlled business to sponsor a nationally syndicated television program through its association with “Soul Train,” Don Cornelius’ groundbreaking music and dance show. The partnership placed Johnson Products before Black audiences nationwide while helping support a program that changed the presentation of Black music, fashion and culture on television.
For generations of viewers, Afro Sheen advertisements and “Soul Train” were part of the same cultural landscape. The products did more than sit on store shelves. They appeared alongside an emerging national image of Black style, Black ownership and Black possibility.
A Business Legacy That Outlasted the Company’s Hardest Years
Johnson Products later encountered serious challenges, including changing hairstyle trends, increased competition from major corporations and a federal investigation. Revlon and other larger companies entered the Black hair-care market with substantially greater resources.
The business also became intertwined with changes in Johnson’s personal life. Joan Johnson gained control of the company following the couple’s 1989 divorce. The company was sold in 1993, and George and Joan later remarried in 1995. Joan Johnson died in 2019.
Yet the company’s historical impact endured.
Johnson lived long enough to tell his story in his own words. At 97, he completed the memoir “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street,” recounting the journey behind the brands and the barriers he crossed. The Associated Press reported on the memoir ahead of its 2025 publication.
Johnson is survived by his wife, Madeline; four children; 10 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
His legacy remains in more than Ultra Sheen jars, Afro Sheen advertisements or a historic stock exchange listing. Johnson proved that a company built specifically around Black consumers could become a national force — and that Black ownership could shape American business and culture at the same time.
