Spelman College receives historic $100 million donation

In a historic moment, Spelman College Board Chair Lovette Russell announces a record-breaking $100 million gift from board member Ronda Stryker and William Johnston. This donation marks the largest single contribution to any HBCU, or Historically Black College or University. “CBS Mornings” speaks exclusively with Spelman College President Dr. Helene Gayle about what the money will be used for and the importance of the gift.
Each weekday morning, "CBS Mornings” co-hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson bring you the latest breaking news, smart conversation and in-depth feature reporting. "CBS Mornings" airs weekdays at 7 a.m. on CBS and stream it at 8 a.m. ET on the CBS News app.
Subscribe to “CBS Mornings” on KZbin: / cbsmornings
Watch CBS News: cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7c
Download the CBS News app: cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8
Follow "CBS Mornings" on Instagram: bit.ly/3A13OqA
Like "CBS Mornings" on Facebook: bit.ly/3tpOx00
Follow "CBS Mornings" on Twitter: bit.ly/38QQp8B
Subscribe to our newsletter: cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T​
Try Paramount+ free: bit.ly/2OiW1kZ
For video licensing inquiries, contact: [e-mail]

[@lindawilliams8715]

Congratulations Spelman! We pray more donations will increase for all HBCUs.

[@johnwebb2442]

Most Definitely.

[@littlefinger5199]

This is so cool! I’m an HBCU grad and happy to see this phenomenonal gift. May many other philanthropists follow suit at other HBCUs around the country.

[@Icon328]

Congratulations to Spelman College!! From a fellow HBCU alumnus.

[@shanec9840]

This is where my daughters are going!

[@AshErin8304]

That’s incredible. A direct reflection of your parenting. Both you and your daughters did a wonderful job ❤

[@lyndellscott6967]

As a fellow HBCU Grad. . . My congratulations to Spelman - well deserved!!

[@tiffanypittman04]

Well deserved! 👏🏾 Hopefully, this amount of money flows in to other HBCUs.

[@bobby12348]

It's that girl college

[@johnwebb2442]

Most Definitely.

[@bilqis3]

Wow, thank you to the Striker/Johnson family!

[@kl.8992]

I love this. I really hope more (smaller) HBCUs receive this level of funding.

[@NSUVid]

Facts

[@johnwebb2442]

Absolutely.

[@brianvines8394]

What a blessing to be a blessing. This is H-U-G-E

[@bck12034]

HBCU goodness!! Congratulations Spelman! Well deserved! ❤

[@ethanrobertson3008]

Good for Spellman College Keep HBCU alive

[@MomTube-i9w]

Build more dorms. Spelman does not have enough dorms. I wish they would build more dorms.

[@nygakat]

Family traditions are to attend an HBCU! Go Spelman! 🎉🎉

[@AJ8888able]

Congratulations Spelman!!!

[@sparkle3000]

Very nice how HBCU'S are showing Black People we don't need to feel left out. 👏 👏 👏

[@bernardwylie9760]

Very true…..and everything that’s happened recently in the country has made it very clear that HBCUs are truly the only trustworthy institutions to incubate and nurture black and minority intellectual talent for this country. The Harvard scandal, the SCOTUS decisions on affirmative action and student debt, the attacks on DEI and critical race theory all make very clear that PWI institutions are for them and their worldviews, and the only thing that they can go for blacks and minorities seeking knowledge, education, and jobs…..is milk their pockets dry and make them feel unwelcome and unvalued, and stick them with a huge bill for it.

[@people744]

You make yourself feel left out

[@bernardwylie9760]

⁠@@people744really, well the Supreme Court’s ruling, Bill Ackman’s money, Claudine Gay’s resignation after 6 months, and the attacks on minorities and DEI at PWI institutions all prove the exact opposite.

[@turquoisepurple7sky151]

​@@people744Thats a lie.

[@lifeofbella9246]

Fellow HBCU grad...congrats to Spelman! Well deserved!❤❤

[@lasandralucas7314]

Congratulations 🎊 👏🏾 💐 🥳

[@donaldmoore6300]

Congratulations, Congratulations, and Congratulations!!!!!

[@BonnChnd]

Congratulations to Spelman!

[@jermainesimmons2944]

Congrats to Spelman! Atlanta should be happy for them about this historic moment! Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Clark Atlanta should follow suit after!

[@sugwilliams6257]

Bless the Lord 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾🤸🏿🤸🏿🤸🏿🤸🏿💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@kimocoloma4123]

Bless the couple donated it. I don't see one thank you to them here.

[@ChereeYT]

Congrats to Spellman

[@neilifill4819]

That’s awesome!!

[@lllcc939r9]

Excellent. So proud. Well done Spelman

[@erichawkins5738]

Congratulations Spelman!! Well deserved!! I hope we can do the same thing for other HBCUs.

[@Raven-ug8uw]

Yeah, stand up. Ure all superstars!

[@MarkellSpivey]

Incredible.

[@janelleglass3673]

Congratulations to Spelman!!!!

[@thinktank4768]

I have college degrees. HOWEVER, I wish that I could have attended Spelman College. 😌 👩🏽‍🦱🇺🇸

[@evelynzlon9492]

The primary purpose of the Fair Housing Act was to compound, not reverse, the impact of preexisting housing discrimination. America's racial policies are often written in a manner which sounds egalitarian or otherwise beneficial to blacks in theory. As in the To Serve Man episode of the Twilight Zone, hardly anyone bothers to examine the actual monetary processes attached TO them. The sharecropping system was a notable example of this de facto racist exploitation. The Fair Housing Act is another. In the wake of WW2, the GI Bill enabled only white WW2 veterans to purchase suburban homes with no down payment. When blacks earned the right to move into these neighborhoods AFTER the fact, it triggered supply and demand pricing adjustments in the housing market. The heightened market competition for white-owned homes automatically boosted their market values. The preexisting white homeowners effortlessly pocketed the additional equity, and vice-versa. The typical black homeowner lost value on their most important asset. Additionally, the Fair Housing Act didn't include a no money down clause as the GI Bill did. Unlike whites who could move into their new homes immediately, black prospective homeowners were strained and delayed by the necessity of paying rent and accumulating a down payment simultaneously. For many, this was a hindrance to purchasing a home AT ALL. That's why the rate of black home ownership is lower now than it was 60 years ago. Et cetera. I have a B.A. in Economics so I could recite a litany of underhanded racist economic policies.

[@natajean10]

Love this

[@sandranynj7118]

Bravo!!!!

[@abenawilliams6623]

Amazing 😊😊😊😊

[@victoriayarish4180]

That is AMAZING!!

[@soulsurvivorla]

This is an incredible gift to a school that deserves it. But it leaves me wondering why people like Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Kenneth Chenault, Samuel Jackon, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington are not making such gifts to HBCUs. Why is it in this age of black multi-millionaires and billionaires do HBCUs have to rely on the largesse of white donors? Where is black philanthropy endowing chairs and creating scholarship funds? We need to step it up now!

[@c.m.3600]

Exactly! This just goes to show Mrs. Stryker, though white, has a genuine interest in the development of black people. Regardless of how rich you are 100 mil ain’t no joke.

[@annzeeg4217]

While you're here search for Oprah Winfrey Morehouse College, from her final show and see how many black men she has put through Morehouse since the eighties. She has been giving back since the eighties. Tyler Perry and many of the people you named have scholarships as well. Unfortunately this kind of news doesn't travel through the community like the negative stuff does

[@WenD1908]

Oprah Winfrey has donated to Spelman College and her alma mater , Tennessee State University. Samuel L. Jackson has donated to Morehouse College, his wife, a Spelman alumna, has donated to Spelman. Their gifts to HBCUs are in the millions. Kenneth Chenault, $2M to Howard University. The others, do a search, Google is your friend. All the information took seconds to find. Ms. Winfrey’s gift, I was at Spelman when she gave the money. Now ask yourself, instead of downing those who have donated, what have you done for HBCUs? Do you give annually or at least help a student who may wish to go but needs help? Our schools need ALL of us, not just the famous/wealthy. Before anyone asks, I give annually and have done so for over 25 years. 🩵🤍

[@SalimSivaad]

Just a few years ago, a black billionaire named Robert Smith gifted the entire graduating class of Morehouse (my alma mater), reimbursement of their entire student loans acquired during all 4 years. Ray Charles donated a significant portion of his estate to Morehouse when he passed. Sure, more needs to be done, but many people you name DO give but don’t publicize their gifts.

[@c.m.3600]

@@WenD1908 thank you for sharing this

[@K_patts8370]

We love to see it!!

[@priscillaferguson267]

Congratulations 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@AshErin8304]

That’s amazing ❤

[@johnwebb2442]

This is great.

[@gbengaadewusi1373]

This is great👏👏

[@reuben144k4]

❤

[@480Tay]

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@Safphron]

Dr. Helene Gayle's microlocs/ sisterlocks look so beautiful during this interview. She and her loctician should be proud.

[@dmajorx]

🤔 when you open your eyes only then you can truly see!

[@alfredwhitejr2306]

Awesome!

[@brendajenkins9490]

Yeah that is right.... to ensure more young women to pursue their dreams in the path of education.

[@iamlyrics9118]

Oh WOW 🤎

[@thaddineswifteagle7626]

Herstory

[@eliciaellis7428]

Definitely!

[@rholloway717]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@du-wonnreuben2289]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@marigoldbeam5475]

👏🏾🙏🏾

[@ajordan1847]

❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🙌🏾

[@bobby12348]

This is so great i know a lots of black girls would love to go to that school. ❤

[@candyjamaican]

Build more dorms. Build more dorm. Build more dorm!!!

[@pamelapolk7128]

Look at GOD!! I hope the same for other HBCUs!

[@Sir2045]

School in America is a tax break

[@karenmanie2794]

🤗

[@Yaddyvalerio]

Invest in HBCU

[@talisha5863]

I wonder if Zahara Jolie’s parents or affiliates had anything to do with it👍🏽💪🏾👏🏽😉

[@TheMarapasa]

...when i seed you at the store miss celie, i knew dere is a God...

[@MelissaJordan-c3f]

Ayayyayayaya spelhouseee

[@FelaKuti8000]

To me, this is what reparations look like. Building up institutions that build us up. That individual-check idea is nonsense.

[@tanaisagibson7138]

Why take away someone else's opportunity. Just reject it for yourself.

[@joestrickland5153]

Ressurect LOU RAWLS MISSION BECAUSE A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE

[@yasip9897]

Oh and Chile btw, if you think you can defund African American women and think it will stop us and not reinvigorate us, you obviously didn't learn anything from those history textbooks.

[@SuperMogul]

How about giving 1 Million $ to100 worthy Entrepreneurs. When some person or entity donates money to a University or Charity. They never show you who's the money going to. Put the money in the people's hands that really needed it. Instead writing a check to some institution. You don't know what that money will be spent on.

[@god563616]

Finally someone gives to HBCU's after Trump's donations. Now let's use the resources for the Actual students and not for oneself.

[@lanaprice497]

Well deserved.. Now, buy back those dilapidated houses for blocks surrounding the university. This investment for sure may save lives for future generations to come. The drug traffic is real! I know this first hand losing my child at CAU, connected via the promenade. Housing for students would be perfect...

[@okeafia5630]

I tell people all the time that I’m raising the presidents wife or the doctors wife or the senators wife, not the “neighborhood drug dealer. I raise my girls to love education too. With that being said my 11 y/o will go to Spelman after high school. She is being groomed to go into medicine or tech.

[@BobbyBuckhead-u6k]

🌞👍🏿👏🏾👊🏿🙏🏿❤️✊🏿🙌🏾💐🎉🎊🧑🏾‍🎓

[@mf4450]

👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿🫶🏿❤️

[@patienceboafo1998]

I hope wealthy black Americans follow in her foot steps, not only showing off their wealth on social media but doing something meaningful

[@cherylwilliama337]

How about our black men that truly need a great push in our culture.

[@ddoubleu170]

Black men need to mobilize for those young brothers. Robert F. Smith paid off the class of 2018’s tuition. It has happened, but Black men need to mobilize for their own, just as Black women are doing. MEN make their own paths. We must hold our men to the standard the world holds them, too. They’re not boys - as you stated. They MUST mobilize. Edit: Also, the Stryker’s (whom are white), obviously are taking note as board members, that Black women are pushing through - regardless of obstacles. Spelman (an HBCU; all women’s institute) has ranked #1 amongst institutions of its kind for 17 years. Morehouse has the same opportunity and they’re striving.

[@donaldwalker1221]

We have to stop the, “How about-ism?” It’s happening now! It takes a simple Google Search to see that people are giving millions to HBCU’s. Morehouse received a gift not too long ago. A lot of gifts are happening now, just not publicized at the request of the donors.

[@jennifertebomosiane9596]

Oprah gives to Morehouse. Robert Smith gives to Morehouse. This is the first time I've heard anyone give to Spelman.

[@turquoisepurple7sky151]

You need to allow black men to speak for themselves in all segments. We have coddled them to many times.

[@donnybrown8390]

​@@jennifertebomosiane9596Jeff Bezos ex wife gave MacKenzie Scott gave Spelman between $20 - 40 million in 2020. She gave $560 million to 22 HBCUs.

[@T_WC123]

I don’t like the income inequality when a couple can donate $100 million. We need greater income equality and to more effectively tax the rich.

[@littlefinger5199]

Wrong time, wrong time. Take this negativity elsewhere.

[@kimocoloma4123]

Nobody will give it to you you have to earn it. No government will give you wealth rather they will come to collect taxes on your earned wealth. I don't see anyone thanking the white couple who donated $100 million here. I begin to believe my black friend said about Democrats "Nothing will ever be enough for them".

[@T_WC123]

@@sabinaandrews4163 we don’t have to have ultra rich like we do.

[@T_WC123]

@@littlefinger5199 the problems with the ultra rich are a fact, even if you don’t want to hear it. You don’t have to read comments if you don’t like other opinions.

[@Eastpointe]

I know she did not say “y’all” in her Spellman speech.🙄

[@WITHETSTORMXX]

Yes and she also said goot morning instead of good morning

[@v.a.993]

ALL southerners say Y'ALL, especially the white ones.

[@scythcb]

There is nothing wrong with her choice of speech. Yall is language. Let’s stop policing how people speak

[@littlefinger5199]

We’ve been free since 1865, we can speak as we please.

[@candyjamaican]

Yes she did that!!…….And what’s y’all’s problem?

[@ddoubleu170]

Love this for Spelman! Very well deserved. Nothing, but BRILLIANCE comes out of Spelman.

[@hkbentley]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@peacefuljourney405]

And this is how you give back, thank you Lord

[@katkatsanis]

Yes, totally ❤😌👍

[@labratamber]

The donor isn't an alum, but I do agree it's a great gift

[@sollunaystars]

Go Spellman! Well deserved! 👏👏👏👏

[@verbenacummings7046]

Yes for us. We will always make Spelman and the world proud.

[@ashunt29]

This is WONDERFUL!!! Continue to put the spotlight on HBCUs!!!

[@apcubanis09]

This is amazing!!! Well deserved!!!

[@maximusdecimusmeridius9482]

As a black man I couldn’t be happier!!! Happy for these Queens! 🙌🏾

[@johnwebb2442]

Me too.

[@Winniegirl85]

Amazing congratulations ❤❤

[@SamAsm367]

Positive & inspiring. I hope Spelman remains unbossed and unbought. Unlike its Ivy League peers.

[@KCNwokoye]

Wow awesome news. Hope more people follow suit.

[@potterwalker4823]

Make sure you get the black billionaires to match that $100 million while you are spreading the DEI evil.

[@heyerikan]

Agreed!

[@sharmawade5498]

To God be the glory, honor, and praise! 🙌🏾👏🏾🎉. Congratulations Spelman College, And The donators who made it possible to continue to help our black young women reach as high as they could imagine. 🎈🎉

[@TonyRomeNewMoney]

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW! Spelman is an incredible school and this Blessing is well deserved. I am soooo happy for the administration & students. 🎉

[@redeemed5906]

As a graduate of CAU, I am super excited for my neighboring sister HBCU institution Spelman

[@maryprior9386]

Blessings from Argentina, Spelman Is SIMPLY THE BEST. !!!!

[@dovetales3]

This is indeed a phenomenal blessing, but I pray that all the recipient's become billionaires themselves and return the favor to whomever they wish! To God be the Glory! 💙💙💙💙

[@whatever736]

This is phenomenal.🥰🥰🥰💪💪

[@KiraAntoinette]

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🙏🏾 Amazing! I wish more HBCU’s could get donations like that.

[@Peachez4044]

Amazing 🎉

[@saleemahfareed4495]

Congratulations 💜😊 4:55

[@bambooblue74]

Go Spelman!

[@557Deola]

This is amazing! May God bless the couple that gave this great gift...❤❤❤❤

[@emilyellis4860]

Now they should be more selective about who they let in and start meeting the financial needs of all students without any student loans.

[@Raven-ug8uw]

Period!

[@davielove11]

Wonderful news...we need good news like this more often.

[@sstill2008]

Beautiful 🤩 🎉❤

[@katkatsanis]

Wow!! ✨ What fantastic news! This truly brightened my evening, and I don’t even have a formal connection to Spelman. Though I genuinely rejoice in your well-deserved, good fortune, and pray that such generosity will pour out to other HBCUs, too. YAY ❤Congratulations!!! 🎉