Sonari Glinton

George was asked to hire a, quote, real marketing director instead of his brother and himself.

And George told us under the new marketing director, a white guy, the company sales went flat for the first time.

And when people who hadn't been paying attention to Black Americans as a profitable market saw that?

Like Revlon, the cosmetics giants.

Now they created their own hair straightener, and they were an established international company.

Even though George now had Rolls-Royce money, he did not have Revlon money.

I didn't have it then, but we were still working on it.

Johnson Products rushed theirs to the market, but they were far too behind.

And by the way, Jerry Redding, the inventor of the Jerry curl, was white, though another Black-owned company was the one to bring it to the masses.

And their tagline was a black manufacturer that understands the hair care needs of black customers.

Oof.

So they came to eat George Johnson's lunch.

Now he had a big publicly traded company and he seemed out of touch.

Joan made $32 million in the sale of the company.

Today, the global Black hair care market is worth something like $4 billion.

And George told us he feels proud that he helped open the door for Black entrepreneurs that came after him.

To this day, Olivia Joan still uses the products her family created more than six decades ago.

But when Olivia Joan goes to the store and looks down that hair care aisle or multiple aisles, she says she doesn't feel the same pride.

Growing up, I do remember my sister braiding my hair.

God, I wish I still had some.