Jet (magazine)
Jet was an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois. Initially billed as "The Weekly Negro News Magazine", Jet is notable for its role in chronicling the American Civil Rights movement from its earliest years, including coverage of the Emmett Till murder, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Published in small digest-sized format from its inception in 1951, Jet printed in all or mostly black-and-white until its 27 December 1999 issue. In 2009, Jet's publishing format was changed; it was published every week with a double issue published once each month. Johnson Publishing Company published the final print issue, 23 June 2014, continuing solely as a digital magazine app.
History
Johnson called his magazine Jet because, as he said in the first issue, "In the world today everything is moving along at a faster clip. There is more news and far less time to read it."Redd Foxx called the magazine "the Negro bible."Jet became nationally famous in 1955 with its shocking and graphic coverage of the murder of Emmett Till. Its ubiquity was enhanced by its continuing coverage of the burgeoning civil rights movement.