BIDDY MASON

Bridget "Biddy" Mason was an African-American business success story. An illiterate slave woman who worked as a nurse/midwife she went on to become a successful entrepreneur and a generous contributor to social causes. Mason was one of the first black women to own land in Los Angeles. This site is now in the center of the commercial district in the heart of Los Angeles. In 1884, she sold a parcel of the land for $1500 and built a commercial building with spaces for rental on the remaining land. Biddy Mason died January 15, 1891 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Evergreen cemetery in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. Nearly a century later, on March 27, 1988 a tombstone was unveiled which marked her grave for the first time in a ceremony attended by Mayor Tom Bradley and about three thousand members of the First African Methodist Episcopal church.

ROBERT JOHNSON

Robert Johnson became owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Charlotte expansion franchise in 2002. This purchase made Johnson the league's first Black majority owner and the first Black owner in major professional sports. At 56 years of age, he was the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET). Forbes magazine estimated Johnson's wealth at $1.3 billion earlier this year, making him No. 149 on the magazine's list of richest Americans.

MARJORIE S. JOYNER

Marjorie Stewart Joyner was an African American businesswoman and humanitarian. Joyner went on to become an inventor and an educator in African American beauty culture. While a cosmetologist, she invented a permanent wave machine that would allow a hairdo to stay set for days, if not more. In 1926, she became the first African American woman to receive a patent for her invention and opened the door for many others to follow. Marjorie Joyner never received any money for her invention but she did move fast in the world of beauty. She became the Director of C.J. Walker's nationwide chain of beauty schools. She also co-founded, with Mary Bethune Mcleod, the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association in 1945. Joyner worked for years to raise money for black colleges and chaired the Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States, for over fifty years. Marjorie Stewart Joyner died in 1994.