Sheila Johnson
BY Patrick J. Kiger
Sheila Johnson, the nation’s first African-American female billionaire, has been opening her checkbook to political candidates and causes.
Johnson, a former researcher in the office of Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York, worked for a time as a private-school music teacher and founded a youth orchestra before she and her then-husband, Robert L. Johnson, founded Black Entertainment Television, the first network aimed at African-American viewers, in 1980. When Viacom acquired BET in 2000, the Johnsons walked away with $1.6 billion, which they divided when the couple split in 2002. In 2005, Sheila Johnson became a partner in a group that owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics (of which she is the president and managing partner), and a minority interest in the NBA’s Washington Wizards. She also plans to go into the hotel business with the $70 million Salamander Resort and Spa, which will open outside Middleburg in 2009.
Since 1993, Johnson has made more than $300,000 in contributions to federal candidates and committees, all but about $5,000 of it to Democrats. (She’s been an even bigger player in Virginia politics, giving $404,490 to successful 2005 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine.) Johnson contributed to the senatorial campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. After a meeting with Obama, she announced in March 2007 that she is supporting Obama’s presidential bid. Johnson hosted a luncheon to benefit Obama in Washington in April, and she told a National Press Club audience in June that she is raising money for him “because I think it would be wonderful to have a first black president of the United States.” Johnson’s enthusiasm for Obama may be to the chagrin of her ex-husband, who reportedly is a Hillary Clinton supporter.
Paula C. Squires, “Move Over, Martha Stewart,” Virginia Business Magazine, June 2005; “Lincoln Holdings Purchases Mystics,” Washington Mystics; Ann Gerhart, “Out of the Shadows,” The Washington Post, May 26, 2002; Darragh Johnson, “Sheila Johnson, Marrying Very Well,” The Washington Post, September 25, 2005; David Plotz, “Robert Johnson—How Did BET’s Boss Become the United States’ Official Black Tycoon?” Slate Magazine, November 10, 2000; Kim Hart, “The Lure of a Single Stoplight,” The Washington Post, January 15, 2007; Terry Scanlon, “Females Exercise Political Clout,” The [Newport News, Virginia] Daily Press, September 23, 2005; Associated Press, “Obama Gets Endorsement From BET Co-Founder,” MSNBC.com, March 27, 2007; “National Press Club Luncheon With Helene Gayle and Sheila Johnson,” Federal News Service, June 12, 2007; Beth Fouhy/Associated Press, “Women’s Group Plans To Endorse Clinton,” washingtonpost.com, March 28, 2007.
Previous donor: Bob J. Perry