Johnson, Sheila Crump

Impact on the world

Co-founded BET with her then-husband Robert L. Johnson in 1980, becoming the first Black female billionaire in the U.S. after its $3 billion sale to Viacom in 2001, then built a second fortune founding Salamander Hotels and Resorts in 2005, whose flagship Middleburg, Virginia property holds the only Forbes Five-Star resort rating in the Washington, D.C. area; she also became the first African American woman to hold ownership stakes in three major professional sports franchises (the NBA's Wizards, NHL's Capitals, and WNBA's Mystics).

Life & background

Born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania to a neurosurgeon father and accountant mother, Johnson trained as a classical violinist, touring internationally with an orchestra before co-founding Black Entertainment Television with her then-husband Robert L. Johnson in 1980, work for which she has said she was not adequately credited at the time. After BET's sale to Viacom for nearly $3 billion in 2001, a deal that made her the first Black female billionaire in the United States, and a difficult, public divorce the following year, Johnson set out to build something entirely her own, founding Salamander Hotels and Resorts in 2005. She secured local approval for her flagship 340-acre Salamander Middleburg resort in Virginia's horse country by a single vote, later calling the project, which opened in 2013 and earned the only Forbes Five-Star rating in the D.C. region, her proudest career accomplishment. Her portfolio has since grown to include properties in Florida, South Carolina, Jamaica, and Washington, D.C. She also became the first African American woman to hold ownership stakes in three major professional sports franchises, and detailed her personal and professional journey in her 2023 memoir 'Walk Through Fire.'

Sources

1. Essence; Fortune; BlackEnterprise.com