Jeff Bezos Former Wife Mckenzie Scott Donates $160 Million to Six Black Colleges

On July 28, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' former wife McKenzie Scott donated a total of $160 million to six HBCUs. The recipients include Howard University, Tuskegee University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Hampton University, Spelman College, and Morehouse College.

In 2019, Scott made a pledge to give a part of her wealth to support the society. She recently fulfilled that pledge by publishing a list of 116 selected organizations that she will be working with over the next couple of years. From the day of her pledge to date, she has donated $1.7 billion in total.

“Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror,” Scott said in a Medium post. “Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems: or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust, but also unstable. What fills me with hope is the thought of what will come if each of us reflects on what we can offer.”

On Tuesday, July 28, four of the recipients announced that they had already received the generous donations which came from the philanthropist. According to each recipient’s release, Howard University received a donation of $40 million, Hampton University received a donation of $30 million, Tuskegee received $20 million, and Spelman College reported an undisclosed amount.

By the following day, Morehouse College announced that they received an “eight-figure gift” from the Philanthropist. Xavier University, in its release, said that it received a $20 million gift from an anonymous donor.

“I would like to thank Ms. Mckenzie Scott for her investment into Howard University and our 153-year mission of serving a diverse community of dynamic scholars who come here for an education and leave here with a purpose to serve the world,” said the President of Howard University, Wayne A.I. Frederick, M.D., MBA in a statement. “We plan to immediately put this eight-figure gift to good use to support components of our 5-year strategic plan to help students graduate on time, retain our talented faculty, enhance our campus infrastructure and support academic innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“This gift will allow us to become the Tuskegee of the 21st century: a university that integrates knowledge, leadership and service to solve the problems of a global, modern society,” said President of Tuskegee University, Lily D. McNair, in a statement.

Spelman College leadership also described Scott’s donation as a “magnanimous gift” that will go a long way in the administration of the college.

President of Hampton University, Dr. William R. Harvey, described the gesture as a “pure act of benevolence” and a “game changer” that couldn’t have happened at a better time.