Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will donate $120M to historically black universities

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, are donating $120 million to historically black colleges and universities, according to a report from CBS This Morning on Wednesday. The donation will split among Morehouse College, Spelman College and the United Negro College Fund. 

Hasting’s donation is the single largest individual gift ever given to support scholarships at historically black colleges and universities, said CBS This Morning. (Editors’ note: CNET and CBS This Morning are both part of ViacomCBS.)

Hastings credited CEO of the United Negro College Fund, Dr. Michael L. Lomax for helping he and his wife understand the importance of historically black colleges and universities.

“What happens is that white capital tends to flow to predominantly white institutions. And it’s just what you know and are comfortable with and have grown up with,” said Hastings told CBS This Morning. “And he offered to help Patty and I get to know the HBCUs… And then this year, with the tragedy in America and everyone feeling hopeless, we realized this is the time to do something bigger, and to really try to bring the HBCU story front and center.”

Netflix is one of the many tech firms to make donations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. Hastings also donated $1 million to the Center for Policing Equality.

Hastings is also reportedly one of the country’s biggest donors to education reform and has been quietly funding a large center for education reform in Colorado, reported Recode.

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