Эбони: Жизнь афроамериканцев в журнале.

African American monthly magazine

Ebony is a monthly magazine that focuses on news, culture, and entertainment. Its target audience is the African American community, and its coverage includes the lifestyles and accomplishments of influential black people, fashion, beauty, and politics. Ebony magazine was founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, for his Johnson Publishing Company. He sought to address African American issues, personalities and interests in a positive and self affirming manner. Its cover photography typically showcases African American public figures, including entertainers and politicians, such as Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, former U. S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, U. S. first lady Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Tyrese Gibson, and Tyler Perry. Each year, Ebony selects the "100 Most Influential Blacks in America". After 71 years, in June 2016, Johnson Publishing sold both Ebony and Jet, another Johnson publication, to a private equity firm called Clear View Group. The new publisher is known as Ebony Media Corporation. After the publication went bankrupt in July 2020, it was purchased for $14 million by Junior Bridgeman in December 2020.

Ebony was founded by John H. Johnson in 1945. The magazine was named by Johnson's wife, Eunice Walker Johnson, thinking of the dark wood. The magazine was patterned after the format of Life magazine. Ebony published its first issue on November 1, 1945, with an initial press run of 25,000 copies that sold out completely. Ebony's earlier content focused on African American sports and entertainment figures, but eventually began including black achievers and celebrities of many different professions. Editors stated in the first issue: We like to look at the zesty side of life. Sure, you can get all hot and bothered about the race question (and don't think we don't), but not enough is said about all the swell things we Negroes can do and will accomplish. Ebony will try to mirror the happier side of Negro life – the positive, everyday achievements from Harlem to Hollywood. But when we talk about race as the No. 1 problem of America, we'll talk turkey. During the 1960s, the magazine increasingly covered the civil rights movement. Articles were published about political events happening all over the U. S. where activists protested racial violence and advocated for increasing social mobility for African Americans across the diaspora. Also published was content about the Black Power movement. In 1965, executive editor Lerone Bennett Jr. wrote a recurring column entitled "Black Power", which featured an in depth profile of Stokely Carmichael in 1966. Ebony also commemorated historical events that contributed to black citizenship and freedom such as the September 1963 issue that honored the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Ebony's design and content began to shift in the late–1960s and early–1970s. A new level of competition for subscribers and readers began during the 1970s. Due to the emergence of new African American oriented magazines such as Essence, Ebony began to cover more political activism and achievements in the 1970s. The magazine's February 1971 cover featured 13 black congressmen and women. Ebony highlighted the black professionals serving in Jimmy Carter's administration in the March 1977 issue.