Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, will donate $120 million to the United Negro College Fund and two historically black colleges to advance black education in the United States.
Hastings called the donation “the biggest gift we’ve ever given” as the country grapples with how to deal with racial inequality following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked movements across several industries, organizations, and high-profile businesses and prompted people to speak out about doing their part to improve race relations in the country.
“The times are the most stressed, the most painful, that we’ve ever seen in our lives,” Hastings told MSNBC’s Craig Melvin in a Wednesday interview. “But out of that pain can come some opportunity, too. And maybe this will be the moment things change.”
Hastings and Quillin will give $40 million to the college fund and $40 million each to the Atlanta-based historically black universities, Spelman College and Morehouse College. The contribution will go to support student scholarships.
“We wanted to do our part to draw attention, in this case, to the [historically black colleges and universities]’s 150 years of resilience, of educating young black people, and the stories not well understood in the white community,” Hastings said.
Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College, said the donation would go to help need-based students focus on academics.
