It's amazing how life's events have a way of converging in order to show you what's really important.
Johnson was the founder of Ebony magazine and Jet magazine, which were essential touchstones in my life and the lives of virtually every black American of a certain age.
Both publications were a staple of my youth, on coffee tables, in barbershops, community centers - anywhere black folks congregated.
Forty years ago when I was a young black boy, there were precious few avenues in the media to explore what it meant to be black or celebrate the history and accomplishments of black people. Unless you read Ebony or Jet.
It was in Ebony that I learned there were black celebrities, black professionals, black intellectuals, black society mavens and even black astronauts.
Jet was known for its breezy coverage of the black entertainment culture, elevating people such as Bill Cosby, Diahann Carroll, Muhammad Ali, Sammy Davis Jr. years before the mainstream media decided to give them their due.
It also featured the Jet pin-up, exalting the beauty of black women while the rest of the media turned their backs on dark-skinned females.
In Johnson's magazines, the accomplishments of black people were detailed in depth, as opposed to the usual reports of dysfunction and mayhem other major magazines and newspapers of the time used to define black people.
He was a major figure in American journalism.
One reason he didn't make front-page news most places is that the mainstream news media isn't filled with people who grew up with Ebony and Jet in their living rooms.
Just as missing white women dominate the news cycle while missing women of color get ignored, the death of a noteworthy black figure often shows how little most members of the conventional media know about non-white heroes.
In recent times, the relevance of Johnson's publications has eroded with younger blacks. Many don't realize most black-oriented media products these days such as Vibe magazine, BET cable television and Essence magazine are actually owned by major white corporations.
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