Jackson, Mississippi's Tougaloo College recently announced that they had received a $10 million donation from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, film producer Patricia Quillin.
Half of this donation will provide "much-needed financial aid" for students aspiring to be changemakers in the science, medicine, public health, education, or business fields. The remaining amount will go toward supporting students participating in the Brown University-Tougaloo College Partnership Program, a 58-year-old initiative that "features academic and cultural exchanges, collaborative research ventures and administrative-level engagements."
The HBCU's partnership with the Ivy League university led Hastings and Quillin to learn of Tougaloo College and their donation is the largest gift the program has ever received.
"HBCUs have been vastly undervalued for a long time," the couple stated. "They have an incredible track record of graduating so many Black leaders across the U.S., doctors, lawyers, engineers and more. By investing in the extraordinary students who attend Tougaloo and Brown, we're investing in America's future."
the Netflix CEO just donated $10 million to Tougaloo 🤯
— Maze 👣 (@MaisieBrownJxn) February 21, 2022
"This transformative gift is a life-changing opportunity for our students and the impact will be far-reaching," said Tougaloo College President Carmen Walters.
"Brown and Tougaloo share a deeply held commitment to preparing graduates to make a positive impact in their communities," added Brown University President Christina Paxton. "This generous gift from Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin ensures that this truly one-of-a-kind partnership will continue to expand for many decades to come."
This donation comes just over a year after Tougaloo College received $6 million from MacKenzie Scott, a philanthropist and author who was previously married to Jeff Bezos. Scott's donation was described as "the single largest gift from an individual donor in the history of Tougaloo College."
It's also worth acknowledging that Tougaloo College isn't the only HBCU that Scott has recently blessed, as she's been busy making multi-million-dollar donations to once-overlooked universities, including Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T and Delaware State, as Blavity previously reported.
