Pioneering black publisher John H. Johnson（right）was hailed as a man who left "an imprint on the conscience of a nation". He died at 87.
Born into an impoverished family in Arkansas, Johnson went into business with a US$500 loan secured by his mother's furniture and built a publishing and cosmetics empire that made him one of the wealthiest and most influential black men in the United States.
Johnson founded the Johnson Publishing Company－the largest black-owned publishing company   in   the   world,  and   Ebony －the nation's  number  one  African -American
-oriented magazine. He broke new ground by bringing positive portrayals of blacks into a mass-market publication and encouraging corporations to use black models in advertising aimed at black consumers.
"Out of this swarm of hardworking, family-loving men and women carving out their own version of the American dream, Johnson stood out because his dream was bigger and he had a vision for how to achieve it," said Clinton, who awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.
被譽為?譗國家良知標誌?豃的黑人出版家先驅約翰．強生（圖右）辭世，享年八十七歲。強生出生於阿肯色州的貧戶，以母親的傢俱，取得五百美金貸款開始創業，從而建立了出版與化粧品業的王國，造就他成為美國最富有、最具影響力的黑人之一。
強生創辦了黑人擁有的世界最大?譗強生出版公司?豃，以及美國首屈一指、以非洲裔美國人為導向的雜誌Ebony。強生開創了新天地，將黑人的積極形象引進大眾市場的刊物，鼓勵企業晉用黑人廣告模特兒，以爭取黑人消費者。
?譗以辛勤工作、兼顧家庭形塑美國夢的芸芸眾生當中，強生出類拔萃，因為他有遠見去實現自己更大的夢想。?豃一九九六年頒發?譗總統自由獎章?豃給強生的柯林頓總統說。