Linda Johnson Rice (Finding Aid)

Linda Johnson Rice

1958 -

Interview Length: 105 minutes

Interview Date(s): November 11, 2004

Interview Location(s): 820 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois

Abstract

CEO and President of Johnson Publishing Company, and daughter of the founder, the late John H. Johnson. Johnson-Rice details her parents origins , her father's efforts to start the first black magazine, her adoption and her early education. President and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, Linda Johnson Rice details her childhood and young adulthood in Chicago and Los Angeles. she reveals her great love of fashion from traveling with her mother to Europe to choose fashions for the Ebony Fashion Fair show. Johnson Rice also shares her efforts not to appear as a snob to her friends, despite her highly privelelged background. President and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, Linda Johnson Rice describes how her father groomed her to take the helm of JPC. Encouraged by her father to pursue a graduate degree, Rice demurs, feeling her work at the company is sufficient. John H. Johnson tells her that in securing an MBA, noone will say she was appointed merely because of her family ties, but because she also had the credewntial to prove it. President and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, Linda Johnson Rice details her tenure at JPC, some of the company forays into other media ventures and her hopes for the future of the company.

32 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)