George E. Johnson, Founder of Johnson Products Company, Dies

George E. Johnson, the founder of Johnson Products Company, died on July 7, according to reports. He was 99.

Johnson founded the company in 1954 before it eventually turned it into a multimillion-dollar business. He pioneered marketing techniques to reach Black audiences, which even included sponsoring the syndicated US television dance show “Soul Train.”

In 1971, it became the first Black-owned company to trade on the American Stock Exchange. His company, headquartered in Chicago, manufactured product lines including Ultra Sheen, Classy Curl, Curly Perm and Black Tie men’s cologne.

Humble Beginnings

A high school dropout, Johnson was 17 when he went to work at Fuller Products, a Black-owned cosmetics firm where he was in sales before joining the company’s laboratory staff. Johnson reportedly took advantage when Fuller Products reportedly rejected a pitch from a local barber named Orville Nelson, who willed to make a better hair straightener. He worked with chemist Herbert Martini to develop a new product that wouldn’t sacrifice healthy scalp for straighter hair.

Johnson reportedly attempted to take out a $250 business loan to get kick-start his operation but was rebuffed. Unbothered, he approached a different branch telling the loan officer the money was needed to take his wife on vacation.

In his 2025 memoir, “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from ‘Soul Train’ to Wall Street,” he said his request wouldn’t “challenge his stereotypes of Black men as subservient or unintelligent.”

Johnson eventually walked out with a check in hand. That money went toward developing Ultra Wave, the hero product which would act as the springboard for the company’s successful future.

The company was bought by Procter & Gamble in 2004 and its products were marketed as part of the P&G portfolio. In March 2009, a consortium of African-American investment firms bought the company from P&G to reestablish its position as an African-American-owned company.

Go here to read our spotlight of other Black-owned businesses for Black History Month.