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Johnson Products Founder George Johnson Dies at 99

7/7/2026

Summary

George Johnson Dies

George E. Johnson Sr., founder of Johnson Products, died in Chicago on July 6, 2026 at 99 from respiratory illness.
He founded Johnson Products in 1954 with a $250 loan, launching Ultra Wave, Ultra Sheen (1957) and Afro Sheen.
The firm went public on the Stock Exchange in 1971, with sales rising from $12 million to $40 million by 1977.
Johnson co-founded Independence Bank in 1964 and sat on the Commonwealth Edison board.

Summary

George Johnson Honored

He received Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in November 2025, the university’s top African-American studies honor.
He donated millions of dollars to scholarships for minority college students across the United States.
Johnson Products’ headquarters displayed an 11-foot Richard Hunt sculpture and red-brick pyramids.
The former South Side plant now houses the charter school Perspectives Leadership Academy.
After divorcing Joan, he remarried Madeline Murphy Rabb.

Summary

George Johnson Memoir

His son John Edward Johnson told the Chicago Sun-Times he died at his downtown Chicago condo.
He authored the 2025 memoir “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionalized an Industry with the Golden Rule from Soul Train to Wall Street.”
CNBC-cited industry data showed Johnson Products held 80 % of the Black hair-care market by 1960.
The early catalog added the Classy Curl line, expanding the range beyond Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen.

History

Historical Context

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, outlawing race-based employment discrimination after a House vote of 290-130 and a Senate vote of 73-27. Building on earlier milestones—Brown v. Board (1954) and the 1957 civil-rights law, the act energized Black entrepreneurs, a trend the NAACP documented in the mid-1960s.

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George Johnson Dies

George E. Johnson Sr., founder of Johnson Products, died in Chicago on July 6, 2026 at 99 from respiratory illness.
He founded Johnson Products in 1954 with a $250 loan, launching Ultra Wave, Ultra Sheen (1957) and Afro Sheen.
The firm went public on the Stock Exchange in 1971, with sales rising from $12 million to $40 million by 1977.
Johnson co-founded Independence Bank in 1964 and sat on the Commonwealth Edison board.

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