Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
December 1967 is one of the most historically significant publication dates in Ebony Magazine's history, and this issue — Vol. XXIII, No. 2 — is now widely recognized as a primary document of one of the most culturally consequential aesthetic and political movements of the civil rights era. The cover collage assembling Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, Lou Rawls, Robert Hooks, Ivan Dixon, Jim Brown, Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, and Lew Alcindor — all wearing the natural Afro hairstyle — was an editorial act of genuine cultural audacity. These were the most commercially successful, most publicly visible Black men in American entertainment and sports in 1967, and to assemble them in this specific visual statement — united by a hairstyle that was simultaneously an aesthetic choice, a political declaration, and a rejection of the assimilationist grooming standards that had governed Black professional life — was to make an argument about Black identity and self-determination that no editorial text could have made with equal force. David Llorens's "Natural Hair: New Symbol of Race Pride" cover story on page 139 provided the analytical framework, but the cover image itself was the primary statement: this is what Black excellence looks like when it refuses to conform to white aesthetic standards. For collectors building an archive of Ebony Magazine issues from the civil rights and Black Power era, this December 1967 edition is one of the most historically consequential single issues in the publication's entire history.
The specific figures assembled on the cover warrant careful attention as a primary document of Black celebrity culture in December 1967. Sammy Davis Jr. was at a career peak of commercial visibility, his Las Vegas performances and Rat Pack associations making him simultaneously the most commercially integrated and most culturally complex figure on the cover. Harry Belafonte had been one of the most politically active Black celebrities of the entire civil rights movement, his financial support for SNCC and his personal relationships with Martin Luther King Jr. making him a figure of genuine movement significance rather than merely entertainment celebrity. Jim Brown had just retired from football after the 1965 season to pursue an acting career, his athletic legacy already established as one of the greatest in NFL history. And Lew Alcindor — who would become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 following his conversion to Islam — was a twenty-year-old UCLA sophomore who would win three consecutive NCAA championships and then define the NBA for two decades. His inclusion on this cover in December 1967 is a primary document of his early public identity as a figure of Black political and cultural significance, years before his religious conversion and decades before his Hall of Fame career had fully unfolded. Collectors researching Sammy Davis Jr. magazine coverage and Harry Belafonte magazine features from the civil rights era will find this December 1967 Ebony a primary source document of unusual historical concentration. Collectors researching Black cultural magazines from 1967 will find this the single most iconic issue of that year.
The supporting content documented in the full table of contents adds multiple layers of historical significance that make this issue extraordinarily rich as a primary source. The "Wall of Respect" feature on page 48 documents the Chicago mural created by the Organization of Black American Culture in August 1967 — one of the founding events of the Black Arts Movement, a community-created artwork on the South Side of Chicago that depicted Black heroes and became the model for the community mural movement that spread across American cities through the following decade. A December 1967 Ebony feature on the Wall of Respect is a contemporaneous primary document of the Black Arts Movement at its founding moment. Alex Poinsett's "Computer Tutors for Ghetto Pupils" feature on page 91 documents one of the earliest mainstream engagements with educational technology in underserved communities — a historically interesting early document of a conversation about technology and educational equity that is still ongoing. The Peggy Rusk interracial marriage story by Simeon Booker engages a specific and publicly visible case of interracial marriage in an era when such marriages were still illegal in seventeen American states following the Supreme Court's Loving v. Virginia decision just six months earlier in June 1967, making this feature a primary document of that landmark ruling's immediate cultural aftermath.
About the Publication
Ebony Magazine was founded by John H. Johnson in Chicago in November 1945 and by December 1967 had sustained twenty-two years as the most widely circulated Black-oriented publication in the United States, its editorial format combining celebrity profiles, civil rights coverage, social commentary, fashion, entertainment, and the documentation of Black achievement across every sector of American life. Its editorial philosophy was built around the conviction that Black Americans deserved a publication that addressed them as the full, complex, aspirational people they were rather than as subjects of white-gaze journalism, and its coverage of the natural hair movement in December 1967 represents exactly that philosophy operating at its most culturally confident — using the magazine's enormous platform and its access to the most visible Black celebrities in America to make a definitive statement about Black identity at a moment of genuine cultural and political transformation. By 1967 Ebony was reaching millions of Black American households monthly and was one of the most influential publications in the country for its specific audience.
Key Highlights Inside
- "Natural Hair: New Symbol of Race Pride" by David Llorens on page 139, with the historic cover collage — a primary document of the natural hair movement at the precise moment of its emergence as a mainstream political and cultural statement, assembled through the specific editorial decision to photograph the most commercially successful Black male celebrities in American entertainment and sports wearing the Afro, constituting one of the most consequential single covers in Ebony's history and in the broader history of Black American cultural journalism.
- "Wall of Respect" feature on page 48 — a contemporaneous primary document of the Chicago mural created by the Organization of Black American Culture in August 1967, one of the founding events of the Black Arts Movement, documented by Ebony in December 1967 at the moment of its earliest public visibility and constituting a primary source for researchers studying the Black Arts Movement's origins in community-based visual culture.
- Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) cover appearance — a primary document of the future Hall of Famer's early public identity as a figure of Black cultural and political significance at twenty years old, years before his religious conversion and his NBA career had fully defined his legacy, representing one of the earliest major magazine appearances of a figure who would become one of the most significant athletes and public intellectuals of the century.
- A Challenge for the Guy Smiths by Simeon Booker on page 146 — a feature on the interracial marriage of Peggy Rusk published six months after the Supreme Court's Loving v. Virginia decision struck down anti-miscegenation laws in June 1967, constituting a primary document of the immediate cultural and social aftermath of one of the most significant civil rights rulings of the decade.
- "New Football Stars in the Old South" by Louie Robinson on page 25 and "Eight Seconds on a Barrel of Dynamite" on page 35 — sports journalism documenting the integration of Southern college football and the presence of Black athletes in rodeo simultaneously, reflecting Ebony's consistent editorial commitment to documenting Black achievement across the full range of American athletic life including its least expected venues.
- "Computer Tutors for Ghetto Pupils" by Alex Poinsett on page 91, the "Paris Ballet Star" feature on page 67 documenting Norman de Joie, and "The Incredible Life of Monsieur Bullard" by Mary H. Smith on page 120 — the full range of Ebony's international, technological, and biographical journalism, collectively constituting a primary source document of Black global achievement and innovation in December 1967 that extends the issue's historical significance well beyond its cover story.
Condition & Rarity
Ebony Magazine issues from December 1967 are approaching their fifty-ninth year of existence, and the condition described for this specific issue requires honest assessment. Acceptable condition with a good interior, visible creases on the front cover, marks within, and possible edge wear or rips describes a reading and research copy rather than a display-grade example — a survivor whose external condition carries the visible evidence of nearly six decades of existence while its interior content remains complete and legible. For an issue whose primary collector value rests on its extraordinary historical significance — the natural hair cover, the Wall of Respect documentation, the Lew Alcindor appearance, the Loving v. Virginia cultural aftermath journalism — a good interior is the most important condition attribute, as it means every piece of historically significant content that makes this issue remarkable remains fully accessible and complete despite the external cover condition. Ebony's paper stock in this period was not designed for archival longevity, and the described cover creasing is consistent with the natural aging of a large-format monthly magazine of this age. The plastic protective sleeve provides ongoing protection against further deterioration. Collectors for whom the cover image integrity is primary for display purposes should seek higher-grade examples; collectors focused on the documentary content — the Llorens essay, the Wall of Respect feature, the full table of contents — will find the described condition entirely consistent with a complete and usable primary source of major historical significance.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
The December 1967 Ebony with the natural hair cover collage is among the most historically significant and most actively sought issues in the publication's entire archive — this specific cover is regularly cited in histories of the Black Arts Movement, the natural hair movement, and the cultural politics of the late civil rights era, and surviving copies in any condition attract consistent interest from collectors, researchers, and institutions documenting Black American cultural history. If this issue is no longer available or if you are seeking a higher-grade example, the Sammy Davis Jr. magazine collection and the Harry Belafonte collection at OriginalMagazines.com are the most focused resources for other significant appearances by two of this cover's most historically prominent figures. The full Ebony Magazine collection offers surviving issues from across the publication's history for collectors building a broader archive of its civil rights and Black Power era coverage, and the 1967 magazine collection brings together issues from across that year's major publications for collectors interested in the full breadth of American cultural print journalism during one of the most consequential years of the twentieth century.