Talk:Sheila Johnson

Sheila Johnson was the first female Mulatto-American billionaire.

For those who would revert my edit stating this in the article, here’s my response with sources.

First, the Forbes list is not definitive. Even Forbes does not presume the list is definitive, therefore neither should Wiki editors. In fact Forbes calls its list “our estimates”, and writes in its Methodology, “Are there really exactly 400 billionaires in America? No. By our count there are a few more.”

http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/21/forbes-400-methodology-biz_cz_mm_06rich400_0921methodology.html

So Forbes is an excellent source, but not the only excellent source. The Forbes methodology also focuses on individuals and does not really acknowledge couples. But there are multiple other published sources stating not only that the Johnsons were the first, but specifically stating that Sheila Johnson achieved the distinction of being the first African-American female billionaire before Winfrey. Even Forbes acknowledges the distinction of "first African-American billionaire" as attributed not to Winfrey, but to the Johnsons:

Forbes.com – “Robert L. Johnson”. 2005.

“Founder of Black Entertainment Television became the nation's first African-American billionaire after selling the cable channel to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001. Still in 10 digits even after paying estimated $400 million divorce settlement to ex-wife Sheila in 2002.”

http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2003/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&uniqueId=VYCO&datatype=Person

In 2003, the Forbes 400 ranked Johnson at 179 with 1.3 billion, and Winfrey at 224 with 1.1 billion.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&searchParameter1=5Str%7C%7CPatCS%7C%7CMedia%2FEntertainment&searchParameter2=&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=%2Bnumberfield1%2C%2Bstringfield1&resultsSortCategoryName=rank&fromColumnClick=&bktDisplayField=&bktDisplayFieldLength=&category1=Industry&category2=&passKeyword=&resultsStart=26

Multiple other sources list Johnson as the “co-founder” of BET with his wife, Sheila Johnson and also note her status as the first female African-American billionaire. I have included 26 of the many diverse and reputable sources below that state this point. And as long as the list is, even it is not exhaustive:

1) The Washington Post – “Sheila Johnson, Marrying Well” – Sept. 25, 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401710_pf.html

2) The Washington Business Journal – “A conversation with BET Co-founder Sheila Johnson - 1/21/05 http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/01/24/story8.html

3) Ebony Magazine – “Sheila Johnson: America’s first Black female billionaire – Biography” - Sept. 1, 2003 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_11_58/ai_106700553

4) HotelChatter.com – “BET Co-Founder Sheila Johnson is Keeping Busy in the Hospitality World” - 8/10/2007 http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Sheila%20Johnson

5) Interview in Cosmo Girl. A Hearst Communications Publication. “Billion dollar lady” - 5/6/2007 http://www.cosmogirl.com/lifeadvice/project-2024/sheila-johnson-may06

6) Essence Magazine - “Sheila Johnson, BET’s Other Billionaire” – 2005 http://www.essence.com/essence/workandwealth/atwork/0,16109,1045632,00.html

7) USA Today – “BET billionaire Sheila Johnson: Hillary's terrific, but Obama's her man” - 6/12/07 http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/06/bet_billionaire.html

8) The Washingtonian – “Sheila Johnson Transports Violins to Illinois” – 12/1/06 http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/2905.html

9) National Public Radio – “American Billionaire Tackles Global Poverty” – June 14, 2007 – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11044100

10) AOL Black Voices – “Move Over Oprah: Meet the Other Black Woman Billionaire” – 9/14/05 http://blackvoices.aol.com/workmonmain/workmonmain_canv/wmart/_a/move-over-oprah-meet-the-other-black/20050803171309990001

11) PRN Newswire – USNewswire – “Sheila C. Johnson Honored for Role in 'Breaking Barriers' at Special USTA Opening Night Celebration” – Aug. 23, 2007. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/08-23-2007/0004650404&EDATE=THU+Aug+23+2007,+10:07+AM

12) Black Athlete Sports Network – “Sheila Johnson, Robert’s Ex” – 7/22/05. http://www.blackathlete.net/Blackbox/blackbox072205.html

13) American University Radio – “Sheila Johnson” – 6/23/05. http://wamu.org/programs/kn/05/06/23.php

14) Old Town Crier. “Sheila Johnson”. http://www.oldtowncrier.com/feb07/personalityprofile.cfm

15) University of Illinois Alumni Assn. “Alumni Profile.” Nov/Dec 2004. http://www.uiaa.org/Urbana/illinoisalumni/utxt0406e.html

16) Black Digital Network – “African American Women Leading World Philanthropy” - 9/3/07 http://blackdigitalnetwork.com/articles.asp?id=4&art=752

17) ESPN. “Mystics Owner Gives Back” – 2/22/07. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2775013

18) BlackGivesBack.com – “Q & A with Sheila Johnson” – 9/9/07. http://blackgivesback.blogspot.com/2007/08/q-with-sheila-johnson.html

19) Biography.com – “Sheila Crump Johnson Biography - Concentrated on Music, Co-founded BET, Turned to Equestrian Lifestyle, Generously Gave Away Millions” – 2007. http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2418/Johnson-Sheila-Crump.html

20) Black Enterprise – “Keeping Up with the Johnsons” – 7/31/07. http://www.blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=3332

21) Associated Press – “Sorensen Inst. For Political Leadership. University of Virginia”. 1/9/06. http://blog.sorenseninstitute.org/blog/StateandRegionalBoards/BoardMemberProfiles/_archives/2006/1/9/1632989.html

22) Cornell University School of Hotel Administration – “Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series”. Aug. 25, 2006. http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/academics/lectureseries.html

23) Tennis Magazine. – “Gibson’s impact measured by those she inspired.” – 8/24/07. http://www.tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=100430

24) Women’s Leadership Exchange. – “Atlanta Conference”. 9/19/06. http://www.womensleadershipexchange.com/index.php?pagename=atlanta2006

25) CBS Sports – “Tennis trailblazer Althea Gibson's impact measured by those she inspired.” 8/25/07. http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10317860

26) Hire Strategy. “Richest Residents” 8/14/07. http://www.hirestrategy.com/articles/feature_content.asp?id=513

If someone can find a quote from Winfrey claiming she is the first, please post it here. Or even a source that says she achieved the distinction before the Johnsons. It is not a claim that I’ve found that she or any other reputable source has ever made. And again, every source stating that she is the lone or first, or first female African-American billionaire appear to be extracted solely from the Forbes methodology which again, appears to exclude equal partner couples from its estimates.

Second, even with Forbes Winfrey was not listed as a billionaire until 2003. However Robert L. Johnson and his then wife Sheila Johnson became billionaires with the sale of BET to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion. Again even Forbes acknowledges this. But Sheila Johson was not simply "the wife”. She was an equal equity partner in the business with Johnson, and a corporate executive officer. Additionally according to several of the sources above, it was her bank loan of $500,000 that financed the start up that became BET. The articles all suggest they were equal business partners not just a married couple where he did built the business and she was some inactive agent in the success of the business.

So to be accurate - with the 2001 sale, they both became the first male and female African-American billionaires respectively. Then with the equal division of their assets following their divorce in 2002, both briefly dropped off the list of billionaires, but that does not change the fact that before the divorce divided their assets, united they were still the first African-American billionaires. And Winfrey joined them in 2003.

Third, according to the sources above, Sheila Jackson quickly diversified her portfolio with numerous holdings after her divorce, and not only restored her position as a billionaire in her own right, but again did so predating Winfrey’s 2003 entry the following year. Therefore, despite Winfrey's substantial notoriety as an African-American female billionaire, ultimately she was not the first to achieve this distinction. End of story.

So please let’s stop any nasty edit war before they begin. And if anyone is inclined for whatever reason, to still not accept these findings, kindly do your own research and post your own results here before arbitrarily doing a revert. And then we can discuss them, and if necessary, submit the results of both findings to consensus according to WP:CON. X4n6 11:34, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Actually Oprah was the first and only black woman billionaire

Sheila Johnson has never been a billionaire. She was described as a billionaire only loosely by the media because she was married to a billionaire but Oprah is the first black woman to actually have an individual net worth in the 10 figures:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2003-02-27-forbes-billionaires_x.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9712069/site/newsweek/

No credible business magazine has calculated Sheila Johnson’s personal net worth as being in the 10 figure range.

The fact that Bob Johnson has been called the first African American billionaire does not prove his wife was a billionaire before Oprah was. In fact it proves just the opposite. If the sale of BET had made both Johnsons billionaires at the same time Johnson would have been described as the first African American male billionaire instead of the first African American billionaire outright. Instead the billion plus he acquired from BET qualified him and him alone as the first African American billionaire and he retained his billionaire status until his divorce from Shiela in which case his billion was divided and he was dropped from Forbes billionaire list:

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/harrypotter/11614

And your argument that Forbes does not acknowledge couples is also false. Dorris and Donald Fisher, owners of the gap were both listed as billionaires by Forbes. The reason was that the wealth was credited to both of them while in the case of the Johnson’s the BET fortune was credited to Bob only. In addition, the Gap fortune was large enough that both could qualify as billionaires individually. The Johnson 63% stake in the BET fortune by contrast was worth $1.3-$16 billion (not enough for two people to be billionaires) so when Sheila claimed her chunk of it in divorce, Bob was dropped from Forbes billionaire list, and didn’t make it back on the list until he invested what he had left into realestate. If Sheila does the same, she too may one day qualify for Forbes list as the second black woman billionaire, but so far she hasn’t done so. Pacingcar

Where are the sources?

Your contention that Sheila Jackson has never been a billionaire, and is "described as a billionaire only loosely because she was married to billionaire" is nothing but your own unsourced speculation. It is certainly not supported by either link you submitted. Your USA Today article only cites the Forbes list and does not offer independent analysis. It certainly does nothing to refute all the sources I provided. Nor does it even address or contradict the USA Today source which I cited. In fact, my source is actually 2007 while yours was back in February of 2003! The MSNBC link also simply states that Winfrey is the first but offers no sourcing at all, nor a date of reference to review. Also your argument that no credible business magazine calculated Sheila Johnson's net worth in the billions suggests that you did not read the Washington Business Journal, Black Enterprise, NPR, Ebony, Essence and Washington Post articles, all of which call her a billionaire in her own right, and several which specifically reference that she predated Winfrey in becoming one. Those sources, in addition to the AP, CBS, ESPN, Cornell University, the University of Illinois and the University of Virginia are each independently and collectively unquestionably credible sources. And since you categorically state that Winfrey was the "first and only black woman billionaire", you need to source that claim. Because you haven't so far. You've given just two sources that reference "first", but neither ever mentioned "only". Or how about a source that specifically addresses and dispels Sheila Johnson's "claim" of her billionaire status?

Furthermore, your argument regarding the Johnson billions ignores logic, and is also unsourced. If they were equal partners, as all the sources I provided indicate, then if he was a billionaire, so must she be as well. You can't co-own something equally with another partner with one partner taking 100% benefit and the other taking zero, but that's what you seem to suggest. And especially in this case, where they shared equally the profits and proceeds of the Viacom sale, as all my sources indicate. Plus I quoted Forbes directly which said that he eventually recovered his billionaire status after the divorce and holds that position today - with the additional sources beyond Forbes that say she did exactly the same. Her diversified holdings today, far exceed the amount she acquired in the division of the marital assets. She owns a stake in three sports franchises, a resort that she just acquired valued at over a quarter billion dollars and other holdings, all completely sourced by the links I provided.

As to the question of Forbes acknowledging Johnson alone where you say they acknowledged the GAP co-founders, that's also unsourced, so I don't know where you got that from. Provide the link and I'll look at it. But I also go back to my original Forbes links, and Forbes own admissions that their list is only "our estimate", and that it also omits several billionaires. That Forbes credits Johnson alone but offers no basis in fact for that conclusion renders it nothing more than an editorial call on their part, with no weight of substance or proof in fact. And again, every other credible source disagrees with their bias.

In addition to the many mainstream sources I referenced I would especially recommend that you take note of the many legitimate African-American business sources which credit Johnson and not Winfrey as the first African-American female billionaire. The major ones include Black Enterprises, Ebony & Essence. Each one is long and well established as reputable publications of record in the African-American community. It seems highly unlikely they would each and independently make the exact same claim and reach the exact same conclusion, especially over the iconic Winfrey, on a whim.

But since you are clearly interested in Forbes re: the Johnsons, you may find the link below interesting. It is about a Forbes senior writer who wrote a book about the Johnsons back in 2004, and discloses among other things:

Brett Pulley, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, says that "black businesses are not used to being scrutinized like this," and that it is "extremely tough to do these tough stories on African American businesses." I'm not sure what that means really, but it seems to suggest some admission that it is quite likely that Forbes got this one wrong - or at minimum, less than completely right. Also in the Q & A that accompanies it, he notes that each had "individual fortunes in the neighborhood" of approximately $750 million after the division of the BET assets in the divorce. So with their additional holdings since then, a billion really doesn't appear to be much of a logical stretch at all. And again, that estimate was back in 2004!

http://www.forbes.com/ceonetwork/2004/04/08/0408chat_transcript.html

In the interim, I recommend that you review the sources I posted, and perhaps even do more research on your own. If we cannot agree as I said, I have no problem with submitting the issue for consensus. X4n6 15:06, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Again, my source for the fact that Sheila Johnson has never been a billionaire is the fact that she’s never once appeared on Forbes international billionaire list or on Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans which is widely respected enormous data base that goes back decades, and is available on-line if you wish to confirm Sheila’s repeated absense from the list. True the 2006 Forbes 400 admitted that not every billionaire in America made the list that year, but that was because for the first time in the history of the magazine that number of billionaires exceeded 400 so even some billionaires were too poor to qualify as one of the 400 richest Americans (not so in previous years, and Forbes international rich list provides an exhaustive list of all the billionaires they can reliabley confirm) and Sheila has never appeared on that list either (yet Bob has done so several times!).

Further you complain that my MSNBC link provides no source or explanation for why Oprah is the first black woman billionaire but your sources can be criticised for the same defect. Indeed the only source which provides an anaylytical methodology based on a huge historical data base is Forbes, and unlike virtually all of your sources, Forbes is a reliable source because it’s not speaking outside its area of expertise (wealth valuations). One of the few sources you provide that is even a business source is Black Enterprise however they reveal an amazing lack of sophistication when they claim Sheila’s net worth as $1.5 billion (with no source), immediately after mentioning she was co-owner of BET which sold for $3 billion. It’s completely obvious that the $1.5 billion net worth estimate was based on the simplistic assumption that her net worth was equal to half of BET’s value. Even assuming both Johnson’s split the profits equally from the get go (and Forbes claims they didn’t), Black Enterprise seems to ignore the fact that they only had a 63% stake, and that’s before you deduct the taxes!

And you are the one ignoring logic because according to Forbes the Johnson 63% stake in BET was worth $1.3 billion after taxes (as of 2001). If you are suggesting both owned this equally then both would be worth $650 million and neither would have been a billionaire. If you’re now trying to suggest that two people can be billionaires at the same time even though the joint asset is less than $2 billion then you are redefining what a billionaire is in ways that are inconsistent with a financially authority as well recognized as Forbes. As for precident on how Forbes handles husbands and wives, check out this list of the Forbes 400 where gap owners Dorris and Donald Fisher are both listed:

http://www.namebase.org/sources/gW.html

And of course Forbes numbers are only estimates but Forbes is a financial magazine that specializes in wealth valuations to the point where other financial magazines like Candadian Business look to Forbes for guidance and scholarly texts like Wealth and Democracy describes the Forbes 400 as “an excellent resource”. It is the most well recognized authority on billionaires, and even quoted by people like Bill Gates and Donald Trump. Unlike your sources, Forbes has a clear worldwide historical data base of thousands of names and business portfolios in their computer. None of your sources have the resources to know if Sheila is a billionaire, let alone the resources to know when Oprah crossed the billion mark, and few of your sources even qualify as reliable sources at all because most are speaking about complex finances which are outside their field of expertise. You've also provided no evidence that your different links concluded she was a billionaire independently since almost none of your links cited or justified the claim. Pacingcar 22:17, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Since all of your arguments are repeated on the Oprah Winfrey discussion page, it doesn't appear necessary to constantly jump back and forth repeating them in both places. You may go to that page and you will find all my responses to all your claims and more. X4n6 01:08, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Article Inaccuracies

I work for Rubenstein Communications and Sheila Johnson is a client of ours. There are several stated redundancies and factual inaccuracies that should be removed per Wikipedia’s policy on WP:BLPs and WP:NPOV. To mitigate any potential conflict of interest, I will vet only instances of factual inaccuracies that are not sourced, incorrectly cited, and/or the citation reference is no longer valid. My intention here is not to rewrite the article, but rather, clean it up per Wiki standards and offer a more balanced article structure. If there are any questions/concerns/edits to my proposed actions, please discuss on my talk page. // Brycetom (talk) 19:48, 18 November 2008 (UTC)