Ebony, Jet magazines reflect timeline of African American history

Jimmy Tomlin, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·3 min read

Feb. 10—"Ebony and Jet Showcase," featuring one of the nation's largest private collections of original Ebony and Jet magazines, will remain on display at the High Point Museum through March 2. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

HIGH POINT

Effley Howell says his massive collection of Ebony and Jet magazines is more than mere memorabilia.

"It's really a timeline of Black history," the Kernersville man says.

"You see the Civil Rights Movement. You see Rosa Parks, and then a young Dr. (Martin Luther) King comes in, and you see him and see what he's doing. You see all the movie stars and people in the music industry. As a kid, you open up a magazine, and you see all the people your parents and grandparents told you about, and they're being shown in a positive light."

Howell's collection — or at least a sizable chunk of it — is on display this month at the High Point Museum in honor of Black History Month. The free exhibit, "Ebony and Jet Showcase," opened last weekend and will remain on display through March 2.

Howell collects other African American memorabilia as well, displaying it under the umbrella of his Thankful Heritage Museum, a mobile Black history museum that displays at schools, churches and other sites throughout North Carolina. He doesn't know exactly how many original Ebony and Jet magazine issues he has, but he thinks he has them all.

"I'm still calculating," he says with a chuckle. "It's in the thousands, but they're not all in great condition, so I still want better copies of some of them."

The copies on display at the museum are in very good condition, however, including the hard-to-find inaugural issues of Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951), as well as the inaugural issue of a third Black-centric magazine called Negro Digest (1942). All three magazines were founded by publisher John H. Johnson, whose aim was to reflect Black culture and portray Blacks in a more positive light than they were in mainstream media.

Magazine covers on display at the museum feature the likes of such prominent Black athletes and entertainers as Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Lionel Hampton, Nat King Cole and Floyd Patterson.

You'll also find magazines that feature some local celebrities, including High Point's "American Idol" winner, Fantasia Barrino; jazz icon John Coltrane, who grew up in High Point; Bob Brown, the High Pointer who served on President Richard Nixon's staff and was friends with Nelson Mandela; and the famous Fultz quadruplets, who were born in Reidsville and gained national notoriety as the first identical African American quads.

Famous North Carolinians such as Michael Jordan, Roberta Flack and Pam Grier also appear on some of the magazine covers.

Howell began collecting the magazines in his youth.

"I've always loved history, but when I grew up, there was no Black history in the textbooks," he says. "When I was in school, my parents started getting Ebony and Jet, and I would learn so much about so many different people. I just started collecting those magazines, and as I got older and traveled more, I bought more of them. And then when eBay started, I became an eBay addict."

He also made numerous trips to the annual National Black Memorabilia & Collectible Show in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the largest event of its kind in the country.

Howell's goal, he says, is to create a broader understanding of Black history.

"I want people, especially the youth, to know whose shoulders they're standing on," Howell says. "I hope people will come in and take a trip down memory lane, and see some of the rich history of African Americans."

Jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579