Eunice Walker Johnson was an African-American businesswoman, responsible for the establishment of Ebony Magazine. Together with her husband John Johnson, Eunice Walker helped establish modern iterations of Black beauty and fashion from the 1940s onwards. Ebony magazine was intended to depict the nuances of African American life and culture, along with the addition of Black fashion narratives that were translated to suit the African American Audience.
Notably, the Ebony Fashion Fair helped elevate the Black talent used within the pages of the magazine, to bring glamour, beauty and grace into mainstream culture across the United States. Eunice Walker Johnson has long been praised for her business savvy mindset and insistence on revitalising the fashion industry through her forward thinking and commitment to centering Black voices in an Eurocentric industry.
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Image: Eunice-Johnson-Ebony-Magazine-05_Image courtesy of W Magazine.
Text: NPR. 2010. In Memoriam: 'Ebony' Matriarch Eunice W. Johnson. Available at: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122320864
Turner, T. 2021. The Ebony Fashion Fair. Available at: https://fashionandrace.org/database/the-ebony-fashion-fair/