He joins a long line of distinguished leaders featured in the series, including Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall.
“We are proud to immortalize John H. Johnson as our latest inductee in our Black Heritage stamp series,” Stephen Kearney, manager, Stamp Services, said in a prepared news release. “He was the trailblazing publisher of Ebony, Jet and other magazines as well as an entrepreneur.’’
In 1982, he became the first black person to appear on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the 400 wealthiest people in America. His magazines portrayed black people positively at a time when such representation was rare, and he played an important role in the civil rights movement. President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.
