Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the Autumn of 1945. A digest-sized sister magazine, Jet, is also published by Johnson Publishing.
Ebony cover photography has since its inception focused on African American celebrities and politicians, from Dorothy Dandridge and Whitney Houston, to Michael Jackson and Barack Obama. Persistently upbeat like its generic contemporary Life, Ebony has striven always to address African-American issues, personalities, and interests in a positive and self-affirming manner. Advertisers have for decades created ads specifically for the pages of Ebony that featured black models using their products.

In August 2008 the magazine featured a special 8-cover edition featuring the "25 Coolest Brothers of All Time", the line up featured Jay-Z, Barack Obama, Prince, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali and Billy Dee Williams.
Ebony is one of the most well known Black American magazines in the United States.

In December 2008, Google announced that it was scanning back issues for Google Book Search, making them all available for free.