Author and billionaire Sheila Johnson, on her book, Walk Through Fire, in conversation with Gayle King

presented by the Temple Emanu-el Streiker Center

The remarkable personal story of America’s first Black female billionaire.

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Sheila Johnson never aspired to become any sort of first, by race or by gender. Nor did she lay in bed as a young woman dreaming of becoming a billionaire.

All she wanted at the age of 16 was to avoid becoming dependent on any man for her sense of self-worth or financial security. She had seen the consequences up close when her father abandoned her mother for another woman. But as with so many youthful ambitions, things didn’t quite work out that way.

In her new memoir, Walk through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph, Ms. Johnson writes a searing tale about a 33-year marriage marked by emotional abuse, institutional racism, the loss of a child and the triumph of overcoming self-doubt to find herself in her third — and grandest — act in life.

In this progeram, she will discuss her extraordinary rise and what it takes to become a billionaire in conversation with broadcast legend Gayle King.

Cofounder of BET, Sheila Johnson is also founder and CEO of Salamander Collection, a philanthropist and the only Black woman to have a principal shareholder stake in three professional sports teams.