Former NBA Player Charles Barkley Donates $1 Million to Spelman College

Photo from Spelman College

Grant funding, donations, and other forms of financial awards go a long way for HBCUs. These generous funds can help these institutions build new research centers, create new programs, repair old structures, and much more. Spelman College, the well known women’s liberal arts college institution in Atlanta, recently received great news about a large donation from a former NBA player Charles Barkley.

Earlier this week, NBA legend and philanthropist Charles Barkley announced that he would be donating $1 million to Spelman College. Barkley was moved to make the generous donation after seeing how the college impacted Jordyn Hudson, the daughter of his business partner, John Hudson. 

“John has been a great mentor, a great friend, and a great business partner,” Barkley told al.com. “I was ready to do another HBCU, and with his daughter doing great things at Spelman, so I told him, ‘Why not there?’”

Jordyn Hudson is currently a sophomore at Spelman and will serve as a class president in the future. Hudson, a Birmingham, Alabama native, directed and premiered her documentary, “Shape the Culture: Then & Now,” which compares the modern, young activists to those who engaged in the Civil Rights Era marches during the 1960s.

This is not the first time Barkley has financially assisted an HBCU, as Spelman marked the NBA legend’s sixth donation to an HBCU. Some of his previous recipients of $1 million donations include Alabama A&M University, Clark Atlanta University, Miles College, Morehouse College, and Tuskegee University. In addition, in 2021, Barkley, a Leeds High School alum, gave each Leeds City Schools employee $1,000 and purchased 200 student computers and a year's worth of internet service (Auburn Wire).

“What can you say about someone who is so giving and charitable with their resources with all they’ve accomplished?” John Hudson told al.com. “He has a special place in his heart for Black women; I’ve seen him invest in Black female-owned companies. This is just another indication of Charles investing in something that is close to his heart.”

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