Richest Black families in America include Smith Family, Steward Family, and Winfrey among others. There is only a handful of billionaire African Americans in US.
The United States of America has the most billionaires in the world, with around 2600 operating in the country, according to the Forbes Billionaire Index. However, not many of those are of color.
In fact, according to USA Today, Only 7 African Americans were billionaires in the United States of America in 2021. Billionaire club remains exclusive for the African-American people in the United States of America, reports USA Today.
According to Business Insider, the median net worth of black families in the USA has not grown in the past three decades while their counterparts have added over $50k to their median net worth at the same time.
However, defying these odds and astronomical differences in representations, some black families have actually stayed in the rare club. Robert Smith Family, David Steward Family, and Oprah Winfrey family are among the change makers.
Here is a list of the top 5 richest black families in the United States of America as of 2023.
Richest Black Families In America
| Jay-Z Family | 1.7 Billion |
| Michael Jordan Family | 1.7 Billion |
| Oprah Winfrey Family | 2.5 Billion |
| David Steward Family | 6 Billion |
| Robert F Smith Family | 8 Billion |
5. Shawn Corey Carter Family (Jay-Z)
The Carter Family has a net worth of $1.7 Billion in 2023.
American rapper, music producer, and entrepreneur Shawn Corey Carter best known by his moniker Jay-Z’s family ranks in the 5th position among America’s richest black families.
Adding 500 million fortune from his wife Beyonce’s career, the Carter family has a whopping fortune of $1.7 billion. According to Forbes, Jay-Z has a fortune of $1.3 billion, and according to Celebrity Net Worth Beyonce has a net worth of $500 million.
The Carter family has made their fortune from their very successful music business. Shawn started his career as a singer and later expanded to become a music executive and entrepreneur while Beyonce opted to become a dancer and an actress along with her singing career.
The pair has an ultra-luxurious 30,000-square-foot mansion purchased for $88 million in 2017 in Bel Air, California. They also have a $26 million mansion in Hamptons purchased the same year. Together the pair’s real estate investment amounts to over $150 million, reports Celebrity Net Worth.
Apart from their incomes from their respective careers, the Carter family also have several other sources of income including endorsement deals, fashion lines, promotional deals, and agreements with streaming company Netflix.
As part of diversification in their investment, Jay-Z has invested millions in several companies. He has investments in Armand de Brignac, D’Usse, and Roc Nation Sports, among others.
Among the handful of billionaire black families in the United States of America, Jay-Z and Beyonce have a luxurious lifestyle. Beyonce does not hesitate to showcase her lifestyle on her Instagram page sharing images of luxurious and expensive cars, yachts, helicopters, and private jets.
4. The Michael Jordan Family
The Michael Jordan Family has a net worth of $1.7 Billion as well.
The family patriarch Michael Jordan has added all of the wealth in the family with his former career as a basketball player and later as a businessman. According to Forbes, Jordan is valued at $1.7 billion in 2023.
However, he had a fortune of $2.1 billion, the highest of all time, in 2020. His fortune declined to $1.6 billion the following year in 2021 and has been on a steady upward curve since then.
It might be astonishing to know but the basketball legend only made around $100 million in NBA contracts in his entire career, according to Insider. However, his other ventures pushed him to the exclusive billionaire club.
Michael receives $100 million in royalties alone from Nike for their Jordan brand. He has also invested in several restaurants and eateries around the United States of America. Similarly, he has also invested in several tech startups in silicon valley as well.
The largest portion of the family’s wealth and value comes from Jordan’s investment in the NBA team Charlotte Hornets. His investment in the NASCAR team 23XI Racing also brings in more value for the family.
Jordan also has investments in real estate and owns multiple houses in several states of the USA. He does not shy away from showing his luxurious lifestyle and owns a private jet with his Jumpman logo and his jersey number printed on it.
Michael is married to his second wife Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto. He was previously married to Juanita Vanoy. He shares three children, two sons Jeffrey and Marcus, a daughter Jasmine with his first wife, and two identical twin daughters Victoria and Ysabel with his second wife.
3. Oprah Winfrey Family
Oprah Winfrey Family has a net worth of $2.5 billion as of 2023.
Winfrey is a media mogul and entrepreneur who has made all of her fortunes from scratch. According to her Wikipedia profile, she would often wear dresses made of potato sacks in her childhood due to her family’s extreme poverty.
Oprah’s journey to the billion-dollar mark started when she made $220,000 yearly doing a talk show for WJZ in the 1980s. She then got an opportunity to work for ABC in Chicago and earned $250,000 per year ($600k in today’s money).
However, she got her opportunity on establishing her empire when her show’s production company King World Productions refused to renegotiate. She started her own production company to produce her show for national syndication.
Her production company HARPO Productions negotiated several deals with ABC and later merged with the channel giving Oprah a 1% stake in ABC and much larger ownership of Disney. She would later become the first female black billionaire in the United States of America.
As of now, Winfrey has a huge real estate portfolio owning lands and buildings in several states around the US. She owns properties in Chicago, Montecito, Washington, Colorado, Maui, and other parts of the country. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Oprah’s real estate portfolio is valued at over $200 million.
With her several endorsement deals, brand deals, broadcasting deals, publishing deals, and investments in several media companies combined with her real estate portfolio, Oprah’s net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion as of 2023 by Forbes.
She has not married anyone yet but has been with her partner Stedman Graham since 1986. The pair got engaged and were scheduled to get married on November 1992 but their big day never came.
She does not have any children but she has revealed she lost her baby boy who was born prematurely when she was just 14 years old, according to News.
2. David Steward Family
The David Steward Family has a net worth of $6 billion in 2023.
Steward is the owner and founder of World Wide Technology, a company providing IT support for other tech giants including Citi, Verizon, and the federal government of the United States of America.
His company is valued at $14.5 billion just in sales, reports Forbes. With David owning majority stakes in World Wide Technology, he has effectively put himself into the exclusive billionaire club since 2019 and he is currently valued at $6 billion.
The self-made billionaire was born to Harold Lloyd Steward and Dorothy Elizabeth Massingale. His father worked as a janitor, mechanic, and trash collector initially.
However, before establishing his now largest privately held company in St. Louis, David worked multiple jobs. He has gone without paychecks and has watched his car being towed away by the dealer company from his office window, according to Forbes.
According to his Wikipedia profile, David has worked for Wagner Electric as a production manager, Missouri Pacific Railroad Company as a sales representative, and Federal Express as a senior executive.
Before establishing his company World Wide Technology, Steward owned a Transportation Business Specialists company and a Transport Administrative Services company. He also owns Telcobuy, a global supply chain management company.
David is married to his wife Thelma Steward since 1976. The pair share a daughter Kimberly Steward and a son David Steward II. Their daughter Kimberly is a film producer and entrepreneur while their son is CEO of Polarity, a portfolio management company.
1. Robert F Smith Family
The wealthiest black family in the United States of America is the Robert F Smith family with a staggering net worth of $8 billion as of 2023.
Robert F Smith is an American investor, engineer, and founder and chairman CEO of Vista Equity Partners. He established his investment company in 2000 and opened its first office in San Francisco. The company now has offices in Texas and New York.
As a majority stake owner, most of Smith’s wealth comes from his Vista Equity Partners. According to Forbes, his company is valued at $96 billion in assets. His company is also known for providing a 31% annual return on investment since its inception in 2000.
Robert entered the exclusive black billionaire club in 2016 with a net worth of $2.5 billion, and his fortune has had a fairly straight upward trajectory since then.
However, Robert is not the only one to bring-in wealth to the family. According to Celebrity Net Worth, second and current wife Hope Dworaczyk Smith has a fortune of $50 million.
Hope is an American model, reality television personality, and former Playboy Magazine Playmate. She serves as the founder and CEO of the skincare company MUTHA.
The Smith Family also owns several real estate properties and homes in different states and owns homes in Austin, Texas, Malibu, California, New York City, Denver, and Florida.
Robert has seven children from his two marriages. He previously married Suzanne McFayden and has three children with his first wife. Robert married Hope Dworaczyk in 2014, and the pair share four children, two sons, Hendrix Robert Smith and Legend Robert Smith, and twin daughters, Zuri and Zya.