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/
Chicago was home to the country’s biggest Black bank, Independence Bank. Alvin J. Boutte Sr. was the bank’s co-founder, chairman and CEO.
Before launching the bank, he opened and operated a drugstore which grew into a chain of stores across the Black neighborhoods of the city, Black Past reported.
To establish Independence Bank, Boutte partnered in 1964 with fellow Black business leader George Ellis Johnson Sr., whose Johnson Products Company manufactured Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen. Johnson Products was the largest Black cosmetics company in the U.S. Bouette also partnered with Ebony Magazine founder John Johnson (no relation). Ebony was the largest Black-owned magazine in the country.
In 1988, Drexel National Bank, another South Side Chicago Black bank, acquired Independence Bank. By 1995, it had neem sold again, this time to white-owned ShoreBank.
