Barbara Karant's Book 820 Ebony/Jet Documents Chicago's First Black-Owned Skyscraper

Key facts

• Barbara Karant's book 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon is published by MW Editions.
• The Johnson Publishing Company headquarters at 820 South Michigan Avenue was the first Black-owned building in downtown Chicago, designed by Black architect John Moutoussamy and inaugurated in 1972.
• JPC was founded by John H. Johnson and operated from 1942 to 2012, publishing Ebony, Jet, and other magazines.
• Karant photographed the interiors in 2013, 2014, 2015, and a bit in 2018 after the building changed hands.
• The interiors were designed by Arthur Elrod and William Raiser in a maximalist style contrasting with the minimalist facade.
• The book includes a foreword by Deborah Willis and essays by Aaron Bryant, Cheryl Finley, Carla Williams, Jon Ott, Brenna Wynn Greer, and E. James West.
• The photographic archives were entrusted to a consortium of cultural institutions in 2019 and consolidated at the Getty Research Institute and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
• JPC hosted notable figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Sammy Davis Jr., Muhammad Ali, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Maya Angelou, Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Cicely Tyson, Bob Marley, and John F. Kennedy.