Oprah Winfrey Archives

Michael Jordan

Net Worth: $1 billion

Jordan’s wealth comes from being the majority shareholder of the Charlotte Bobcats and from deals with Gatorade, Hanes and Upper Deck. Most of his wealth comes from his deal with the Jordan Brand with Nike.

Femi Otedola

Net Worth: $1 billion

Otedola is a native of Nigeria and the controlling shareholder of Forte Oil, one of West Africa’s largest oil companies. The Forte Oil company owns gas stations and fuel storage depots. It also manufactures and sells its own line of engine oils.

Abdulsamad Rabiu

Net Worth: $1 billion

Rabiu is also a native Nigerian, and he is the founder of the BUA Group. This company focuses on sugar refining, cement production, real estate, steel, port concessions, manufacturing, oil, gas and shipping.

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Clara Brown

Colorado was one of the sites for the gold rush in the 1850s. Brown moved to Central City, Colorado, established a successful laundry and bought real estate. Brown was the first woman and first Black person inducted into the Society of Colorado Pioneers.

Paul Cuffe

Cuffe was the son of an Ashanti man from Ghana and a Wampanoag Native American woman from Massachusetts. In the 1700s, he was a prominent sea captain whose ships and all-Black crews worked the Atlantic Coast and sailed to Europe and Africa.

Charles Clinton Spaulding, Aaron McDuffie Moore and John Merrick

In 1898, these men founded the first Black-owned insurance company. In 1934, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. was the nation’s largest Black-owned business, and it is still one of the oldest Black-owned businesses in the U.S.

Isaac Myers

Myers organized fired ship workers, raised funds from Black churches and bought a shipyard that won a government contract. Myers let whites join his union, but his efforts to integrate white unions were stifled.

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