George E. Johnson Sr., Founder of Hair-Care Company Johnson Products, Dies at 99

George E. , who founded a hair care company that became the first Black-owned firm listed on the American Stock Exchange, died Monday at his home in downtown Chicago. He was 99. A cause of death was not released.

Johnson and his late wife, Joan, started Johnson Products in 1954 on Chicago’s South Side after securing a $250 loan. The company grew into a hair care empire with brands including Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen that catered almost exclusively to Black consumers.

” “Johnson Products became a fixture in homes and salons around the world and a source of pride throughout Black America,” his family said in a statement.

Johnson was born in 1927 in Richton, Mississippi. His mother, Priscilla Dean Johnson, moved with her children to Chicago during the First Great Migration. As a child, he collected aluminum linings from cigarette packages to sell, shined shoes, cleared tables and set up pins in a bowling alley.

As an adult, he worked for the Black-owned Fuller Products Co. and helped revamp a hair-straightening formula. Johnson secured the startup loan by convincing a bank he needed it to take his wife on a vacation.