The first Black female billionaire in America was Sheila Johnson, who achieved this status after co-founding Black Entertainment Television (BET) and later building her own hospitality empire with Salamander Hotels & Resorts, also becoming the first Black woman with stakes in three professional sports teams.
She used her platform to do everything from launching her own production company, Harpo (her name spelled backward), to starting a school for girls in Africa. Winfrey is the first Black woman billionaire, with deep attention paid to strategic financial partnerships and enterprises.
Oprah Winfrey continues to reign as the richest black woman with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.
In 1908, Madam C.J. Walker relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and opened a factory and hair school called Lelia College. At Lelia College, she taught women to become "hair culturists." Through the vast growth and success of Walker's beauty empire, she became America's first recognized, self-made female millionaire.
In 1913, Sarah Rector, a 10-year-old black girl received a land allotment of 160 acres in Oklahoma. The best farming land was reserved for whites, so she was given a barren plot. Oil was soon discovered there & she became the country's first black millionaire.
Sarah Rector, also known as Sarah Rector Campbell and Sarah Campbell Crawford, (March 3, 1902 – July 22, 1967) was an American oil magnate since childhood. Under the Treaty of 1866, due to birthright as a Black grandchild of Creek Indians born before the American Civil War, she received an allotment.
The richest woman of all is Walmart heir Alice Walton, whose fortune stands at an estimated $101 billion. She reclaims the title from French L'Oréal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who now ranks second, at $81.6 billion.
Who was the first female billionaire? The first female billionaire was Lillian Bettencourt, the daughter of L'Oréal founder Eugène Schueller. She inherited the cosmetics empire in 1957 and grew her wealth over the decades, becoming the world's richest woman.
Sheila Johnson made history as America's first Black woman billionaire, but her path wasn't straight to the boardroom. Before co-founding BET, she was a classically trained violinist and music teacher at Sidwell Friends School.
As an 11-year-old, Sarah Rector became the richest Black child in America, but danger in Oklahoma led to her family moving to Kansas City. Rector's story, long forgotten from the history books, is now the subject of the 2025 film “Sarah's Oil.”
10 Influential Black Women Who Shaped History and Continue to Inspire
🦅✨ Of course, Aliko Dangote sits firmly at the top as the richest Black person alive. His fortune is so massive that it surpasses the combined net worth of global icons like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Tyler Perry, and Tiger Woods—all of whom are also on the billionaire list.
Oprah, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian Top List Of Richest Female Celebrities. Forbes' latest list of America's Richest Women Celebrities features Oprah Winfrey at the top with a net worth of $3.1 billion, followed by Kim Kardashian at $1.7 billion and Taylor Swift at $1.6 billion.
Reginald Francis Lewis (December 7, 1942 – January 19, 1993) was an American businessman. He was one of the richest Black American men in the 1980s, and the first African-American to build a billion-dollar company: TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc.
The Z-score is a measure of how many standard deviations an individual's score is from the mean. Oprah's Z-score of 2.73, equates to an IQ of approximately 140.95, which is high.
She became one of America's first Black female millionaires at just 11 years old! Learn the incredibly powerful and little-known story of Sarah Rector, the richest Black Girl in America. “Sarah's Oil,” co-executive produced by Ciara and Russell Wilson, is now playing in theaters!
Based on the life of Sheila Johnson who retired from the Air Force after being diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer and later went on to found an advocacy group to support Black women and men diagnosed with the disease.
You love her. You probably reference her lifestyle advice at least twice a month. That's a big reason Oprah Winfrey is the wealthiest Black woman in America — her iconic brand is a central part of the cultural zeitgeist.
Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in 1916. Nineteen individuals had attained the status of centibillionaires, each with a net worth of at least $100 billion, as of January 2026.
Madam CJ Walker - 1st American Female Millionaire.
Yes, Kim Kardashian is generally considered richer than Taylor Swift, though both are billionaires, with Kardashian often leading due to her successful businesses like SKIMS, while Swift's wealth comes from music, tours (like The Eras Tour), and films. Recent reports (late 2025) place Kardashian's net worth around $1.9 billion, slightly ahead of Swift's $1.6 billion, though these figures fluctuate.
The richest man in the world is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with a net worth exceeding $700 billion as of early January 2026, holding the top spot due to his vast stakes in technology and space ventures, followed by figures like Larry Page (Google) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon).