Ed Lewis on Growing Essence Magazine Empire From Those First 13 Ad Pages
Posted in: Uncategorized
If it hadn’t been for baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Edward Lewis might not
have been able to start Essence magazine.
Jackie Robinson was Ed’s “hero and idol,” the magazine founder said. “I had the great pleasure to meet him,” and that inspired Ed to make a call to the bank Jackie Robinson helped start, Freedom National, to apply for a $13,000 loan.
Ed had no collateral, and the president of the bank wondered how he would pay it back. But the bank president said he believed in Ed, thought he had character and lent him the money. “If he had not done that, I may not be sitting here talking to you now about starting a magazine for black women,” Ed told me in a video interview a few days before he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
Post a Comment