America’s four medical schools belonging to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been gifted $600m (£473m; €550m) by Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire founder of the financial technology and media company Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg’s donation follows his $1bn gift last month to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which allowed its medical school to offer free tuition to most of its students.1
In 2020 he gave $100m to pay off the student debt of enrolled students at the HBCU medical schools. Last week their presidents were invited to a meeting with Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York, which they thought was an event to commemorate that gift. Instead, they were presented with $600m more.
Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC; Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia; and Meharry Medical College, in Nashville, Tennessee, will each receive $175m. These are the largest three donations ever made to HBCUs and will roughly double the existing endowments of all three of those colleges. Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, will receive $75m.
