Robert L. Johnson, full name Robert Louis Johnson, is a businessman from the United States who founded Black Entertainment Television (BET) and was born on April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi.
He is the first African American majority owner of a significant professional sports team in the United States.
From 1976 to 1979, he worked as a lobbyist for the developing cable industry and noticed that the sizable African American TV audience was underappreciated.
Johnson transformed BET, which had barely two hours of programming each week when he took control in 1980, into a broadcasting powerhouse with over 70 million households.
What is Robert Johnson best known for?
Robert Johnson was a founding partner of BET, which Viacom acquired in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in a variety of business sectors. Johnson formerly held the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.
He became the first black billionaire in the country in 2001. Johnson’s firms were among the most well-known African-American businesses in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
