Photo: George Ellis Johnson Sr. founded Johnson Products Company in Chicago, creating products such as Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, https://aaregistry.org/story/george-e-johnson-was-a-natural-businessman/
Black businesses in Chicago started to disappear when there was an exodus of Black residents moving down South.
Oprah Winfrey moved Harpo Studios from Chicago’s West Side to West Hollywood, Calif. Significant regional businesses like Independence Bank also disappeared. Black businesses were closing due to disinvestment, globalization and the nationalization of local businesses, Politico reported.
The signs were there. In 1990, three Chicago companies — Johnson Publishing, Johnson Products and Soft Sheen Products — landed in the top 20 of Black Enterprise magazine’s list of the country’s largest Black-owned businesses. But by 2020, only one Black Chicago area business was in the magazine’s top 50 — Baldwin Richardson Foods.
