Eunika Johnson

Education

Born Eunice Walker on April 4, 1916, in Selma, Alabama, she graduated with a degree in sociology from Talladega College in 1938.

Career

During her matriculation at college Eunice joined Delta Sigma Theta. Publishing Company The rapid growth of their first publication encouraged them to create Ebony, a monthly designed to emulate Life and its style of boldly-photographed front covers. had been the one who suggested that the magazine be named for the dark wood. By the time of her death, Ebony reached a readership of 1.25 million, while its weekly companion Jet reached a circulation of 900,000.

The Ebony Fashion Tour began as a fundraiser that she created in 1958 for a hospital in New Orleans.

In its half century of existence, the tour visited 200 cities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, raising over $50 million for charity. The fashion tour was a pioneer in using African-American models on the runway and helped highlight the works of African-American designers.

Building on her difficulties in finding cosmetics suited to the skin tones of her models, created Fashion Fair Cosmetics in 1973 as a line of makeup that would be sold in leading department stores. died of renal failure January 3, 2010, at the age of 93 at her home in Chicago.

Achievements

• Johnson was best known as the founder and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair, which was started in the 1950s as a hospital fundraiser and became an annual fashion tour that highlighted fashion for African-American women that ran until a year before her death.