Three historically black colleges and universities announced Tuesday that they have each received the largest single donation in their schools’ history. Howard University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Hampton University were all beneficiaries of massive donations.
Two of the schools, Howard and Hampton, announced that the donations came from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos who announced earlier Tuesday that she has donated $1.7 billion of her fortune to charity. Although Xavier said their donor chose to remain anonymous, Scott announced that she had also donated to the university.
“I would like to thank Ms. Mackenzie 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 purpose to serve the world,” Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick said 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.”