Robert L. Johnson, full name Robert Louis Johnson, is an American businessman who founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) and was the first African American to own a majority stake in a significant professional sports franchise in the country. He was born on April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi.
Johnson, the ninth of ten children, grew up in Freeport, Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree in history with a concentration from the University of Illinois in 1968.
He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Urban League after earning his master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University in 1972.
He started developing important political and financial relationships that later enabled him to finance his goal of founding a Black-owned cable television company.
Is Robert Johnson a billionaire?
Yes, Johnson and his partners took BET private once more in 1998 before selling BET Holdings to Viacom in 2001 for about $3 billion. Johnson stayed in his position as BET’s CEO until 2005.
He became the first African American billionaire thanks to the transaction. Johnson subsequently established the conglomerate RLJ Companies, which has extensive operations in the media, sports, casino, real estate, and hospitality sectors.
