Charles Barkley has donated $1 million to Spelman College after witnessing the impact the institution has had on the daughter of his business partner.
Barkley’s business partner, John Hudson, has a daughter who is currently studying and making waves at Spelman. Thanks to Jordyn Hudson’s success at the HBCU, the former NBA superstar has made the decision to gift the institution with funds that will go toward empowering the next generation of leaders.
“Charles Barkley’s $1 million gift to Spelman College comes at a significant time as we continue to close education and wealth inequality for Black families and maintain affordable education opportunities for women of African descent,” said Spelman’s president Helene Gayle in a statement. “As one of the country’s leading engines of social mobility and the nation’s leading HBCU, this generous gift will help build upon Spelman’s legacy of developing the next generation of leaders.”
This is not the first time that Barkley has used his platform to uphold the rich legacy of HBCUs. In fact, he has kept it in the Atlanta University Center (AUC) family. He donated $1 million to Clark Atlanta University in 2016 and in 2017, Barkley made another $1 million donation to Morehouse College.
“John has been a great mentor, a great friend and a great business partner,” he shared. “I was ready to do another HBCU and with his daughter doing great things at Spelman, so I told him, ‘Why not there?’”
Not only will Jordyn Hudson be the president of Spelman’s sophomore class in the forthcoming fall semester, but she is also the producer of Shape the Culture: Then & Now, a documentary that focuses on how activists of the 1960s are connected to those doing a similar line of work today.
Spelman College is currently ranked as the second largest creator of Black college graduates who go on to attend medical school.