Charles Barkley was wildly successful as a basketball superstar through the eighties and nineties, setting records, winning the NBA All-Star award 11 times and MVP in every way one could be. He has arguably been more successful since his retirement, with a career as an Emmy-winning sports analyst and broadcaster, several books, and the occasional dipping of a toe into politics. Today, he’s worth an estimated $40 million.
And he’s looking to give back.
On Tuesday, November 3rd, Barkley told AL.com, an Alabama-based news-site, that he was pledging to donate $1 million to Tuskegee University, without any conditions. This is the fifth million-dollar-pledge he’s made in the past 5 years. The others have been to Alabama A&M, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College in Georgia, and Miles College, also in Alabama. All schools officially designated HBCU, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Tuskegee University, founded in 1881 as the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers was founded due to a wager between a former Confederate general (W.F. Foster) and a black leader and former slave (Lewis Adams). It is steeped literally to the bricks in the history of people of color in America. Booker T. Washington was among the first teachers there, and owned some of the original campus. “I’ve been there a million times,” said Barkley of the college – he played college basketball nearby, in Leeds Alabama. Without stipulations set by Barkley, the university is free to do what they will with the donation, but the athlete hopes that they will use it for academic scholarships, to help underserved kids get a better foothold in the world. That is the driving force behind his philanthropy, as he made clear in October, when he donated 200 computers to nearby Leeds High School and free wireless internet access for a year to students in need. “We’ve got to find a way to help these kids compete,” Barkley said “I don’t want them to be left behind.”
Source: Henry Herald
Editorial credit: Bruce Yeung / Shutterstock.com