Essence magazine co-founder Jonathan Blount dies at 81

VIA FACEBOOK

Jonathan Blount, who went from civil rights activism in Monroe as a teenager to co-founder of Essence magazine, died July 20 at age 81.

Jonathan Blount, a Monroe native, civil rights activist and co-founder of Essence magazine died July 20 after battling cancer.

He was 81.

Although he moved away from Monroe decades earlier, the impact of his life still resonates with residents. 

“Mr. Blount had a profound impact on our community,” said Eric Hall, president of A Few Good Men Inc., a Monroe-based nonprofit that advocates for local Black community. A large part of A Few Good Men’s work has been preserving Monroe’s Black history, particularly during the civil rights era, a period in which a young Blount was active. 

Mr. Blount was born in October 1945 and adopted by Carrie Blount. Decades later, he reconnected with his birth family after publishing a plea in Jet Magazine. Prior to leaving Monroe in the mid-1960s, Mr. Blount took an active, and at times dangerous, part in Monroe’s civil rights struggles. 

“His firsthand experiences became an important part of Monroe's civil rights legacy and continue to educate and inspire future generations,” Hall said. 

In 2022 a historical marker was placed at the former site of the whites-only swimming pool where Mr. Blount as a teenager picketed alongside civil rights pioneer Robert F. Williams and other students in 1957 and 1961. Shortly thereafter Mr. Blount was a passenger in Williams’ car when Ku Klux Klan members rammed his car and attempted to push it down an embankment along Highway 64. 

Mr. Blount called Williams as one of the “most courageous” people he’d ever known, and an inspiration he carried with him for the rest of his life. 

While Mr. Blount was one of the four original founders of Essence magazine in 1970, his career and commitment to the Black community extended well beyond founding the first magazine marketed to Black women. 

After relocating to the Orlando, Florida, area, Mr. Blount helped launch several other Black-oriented publications while tirelessly advocating for diversity in mainstream media and as a consultant in the advertising industry. He was also a vocal advocate of preserving and revitalizing Orlando’s historical Black Parramore District. 

At the 2022 marker unveiling, Mr. Blount spoke of the importance of preserving Monroe’s rich Black history and his hope was that such markers would make an impression on young people. 

“All the things that you now enjoy did not come about haphazardly or accidentally, it was because there were people who were committed and risked [their lives] in order to make it happen,” he told The Charlotte Observer. 

“Jonathan Blount was more than a witness to history; he helped shape it,” Hall said. “His courage during the Civil Rights Movement, his vision in helping establish Essence magazine, and his unwavering commitment to preserving Monroe's history have left a lasting legacy.

“His life serves as a reminder that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things through courage, conviction, and service.” 

Mr. Blount is survived by three daughters and several grandchildren. 

Comments