John H. Johnson's Every Wall A Ladder

“Every Wall a Ladder” is a nonfiction book written by John H. Johnson he autobiography talks about his growth as publisher and businessman, to becoming the proud founder of the largest black own publishing company ever. He shares the ups and downs to making it what it is today.
“Every Wall a Ladder” first took place in Arkansas, but the main setting was Chicago Illinois. Johnson was living in rural Arkansas City. He was poor living went his mother Gertrude Jenkins. She had a huge impact on his life up until the day she died. They experience a terrible flood that annihilated all their possession. He attended segregated schools and repeated the eighth grade because there were no other black high schools in Arkansas. It was around the great depression and family did not have the means to move. His mother saw

After graduating he was offer a tuition scholarship to the University of Chicago, but he faced a conflict whether to take it because he could not pay for other expense. Later that week he was invited to give a speech at a dinner. Harry Pace, president of Supreme Life Insurance Company, was impressed and offer Johnson a job. Now, he was able to accept the scholarship. After working for Pace for two years he was promoted to his assist. He prepared monthly newspaper articles opening doors to start his own magazine. Despite the negative encounters his mother stuck by him the whole way. She offer him her furniture as collateral to get a loan of five hundred dollars from the bank. The black and white banks wanted something to fall back on in case something happened. He released the first edition of “The Negro Digest” in 1942. He faced problems in distribution until he hired Joseph Levy. He was distributor impressed by Johnson opening doors for “The Negro Digest” to be on urban newsstands. It sold fifty thousand copies within six months. The magazine talked about