Robert Johnson, First Black American Billionaire, Proposes Plan To Reduce Black Unemployment

Robert Johnson, First Black American Billionaire, Proposes Plan To Reduce Black Unemployment: As Congress moves toward a test vote on the Obama administration's jobs package, RLJ Companies CEO Robert Johnson is pushing a proposal that he says marshals the capacity of the nation's biggest companies to significantly reduce black unemployment.

Johnson has dubbed his idea the "RLJ Rule." It calls on U.S. Fortune 1000 companies to voluntarily consider a more diverse pool of qualified candidates when filling senior level job openings and hiring contractors. Johnson has described it as the business version of the National Football League's Rooney Rule, a 2003 mandate that required teams consider diverse candidate pools when filling senior positions.