Ebony (magazine)

Ebony is a monthly magazine for a predominantly African American readership in the United States . The magazine was founded by John H. Johnson and has been published since the fall of 1945.

The front pages of the early editions showed actresses like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge , later also well-known musicians like Michael Jackson or politicians like Barack Obama . Always optimistic like the comparable magazine Life , it strengthened the self-confidence of African-Americans. For the first time appeared Ebony displaying large American companies with black models who drove luxury cars and drank soft drinks.

One of the co-editors was the born German Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi , author of the autobiography Destined to Witness (German title: Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger ), a book about his youth as a black boy in Nazi Germany. The editor was Herbert Nipson (1916–2011) from 1949 to 1987.

Web links

• Ebony Magazine website
• The story of Ebony retold by Langston Hughes in the Ebony 20th Anniversary Issue , November 1965.
• Obituary for Herbert Nipson in the Chicago Tribune