Email Article

Printable Page

John H. Johnson Gives $4 Million to Howard

By Josef Sawyer
Black College Wire

Howard University will name its new school of communications after John H. Johnson.

Howard University has accepted $4 million from John H. Johnson, owner of the Johnson Publishing Co., toward construction of a new School of Communications building. The new School of Communications will be named after Johnson. The gift is part of a five-year capital campaign to raise $250 million.

Johnson, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, has long been a supporter of Howard, which he said has always promoted achievement.

"I have been a big admirer of Howard ever since I attended the first NAACP meeting in Baltimore when Thurgood Marshall was named assistant counsel" of the NAACP, Johnson said. "I knew that he was a Howard graduate and I have been so inspired by the marks that he and so many other alumni have made on this nation."

Johnson said he was honored to make a donation and hopes his contribution will help to advance Howard.

"Mr. Johnson is a pioneer in African-American publishing," said University President H. Patrick Swygert. "His contributions to journalism have played an extraordinary role in chronicling the struggles and successes of African Americans in all facets of life for six decades."

School of Communications Dean Jannette Dates said she was excited by the donation.

"When someone of his stature is willing to lend his name and give his support to what we are doing here at Howard, that is rewarding," she said.

Johnson was born Jan. 19, 1918, in Arkansas City, Ark. He moved from Chicago during the Depression. Johnson used a $500 loan from his mother to begin what is now a publishing empire.

Today his wife, Eunice W. Johnson, is secretary-treasurer of the family-owned corporation and producer-director of the Ebony Fashion Fair. Daughter Linda Johnson Rice is president and CEO.

The School of Communications was founded 31 years ago, and its building is named in honor of physician C.B. Powell, who owned the New York-based Amsterdam News. The old hospital building was remodeled and dedicated to Powell after he donated Howard $1 million.

According to Dates, the C.B. Powell building may become a site for the College of Pharmacy.

Swygert said ground for the new Johnson building would be broken a year from now and that construction should be finished in about 18 months.

Josef Sawyer is a Howard University student who writes for The Hilltop.