Robert Louis Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor.

[1][9][10] Johnson's companies have counted among the most prominent black American businesses in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

[3][4] While at the University of Illinois, Johnson became a member of the Beta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

[4] He received a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1972.

[12] Johnson founded The RLJ Companies, a holding company with a diverse portfolio including hotel real estate investment, private equity, financial services, asset management, automobile dealerships, sports and entertainment, and Video lottery terminal gaming.

[17] By January 2009, Ion Media had another subchannel network, Urban TV, in the works with him targeted to black Americans.

As of 2013, Johnson was a member of the board of directors for RLJ Lodging Trust, RLJ Entertainment, Inc., KB Home, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Strayer Education, Think Finance, Inc., NBA Board of Governors, The Business Council, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

In 2016, Johnson finalized a partnership agreement with AMC Networks through his RLJ Company after launching his own video on demand streaming service Urban Movie Channel in 2014.

Additionally, the RLJ-AMC partnership will allow for greater investment in content from black American creatives, Johnson emphasized.

[33] Following her defeat in the primary, Johnson wrote to members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), where he urged representatives to lobby Obama to select Clinton as his running mate.

[37] Critics accused Johnson of hypocrisy, given that BET has prominently featured artists that glorify drug use and distribution.

[42] In 2019, Johnson praised Trump's economic policies, stating that he "[gives] the president a lot of credit for moving the economy in a positive direction that’s benefiting a large amount of Americans".

He argued that tax cuts implemented under Trump helped stimulate the economy and inspire confidence among businesspeople.

[43] In September 2020, during the 2020 general election, Johnson made comments that were interpreted as him indicating a preference for Trump's reelection candidacy over Joe Biden's campaign.