When I go in to see people - and I sell an occasional ad now - I never say, 'Help me because I am black' or 'Help me because I am a minority.' I always talk about what we can do for them.

In 1995 Johnson received the Communication Award on the occasion of Ebony magazine's 50th anniversary. Legacy
Johnson Publishing Company also has a book division and employs more than 2600 people with sales of over $388 million. Negro Digest
Once the idea of The Negro Digest occurred to him it began to seem like a "black gold mine" Johnson stated in his autobiography Succeeding against the Odds.

He was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company. In 1982 he became the first African American to appear on the Forbes 400. John Harold Johnson (January 19 1918 – August 8 2005) was an American businessman and publiJohn H. Johnsonr.