Charles Barkley pledges $1 million donations to Black HS, Auburn women’s athletics

When the Supreme Court ruled last year to end affirmative action procedures in college admissions, Charles Barkley was prompted to change his will.

At the time, the NBA on TNT analyst revealed his plan to donate $5 million to his alma mater, Auburn University. This generous act will be explicitly directed toward scholarships for Black students.

However, this dedicated contribution doesn’t limit his future philanthropic efforts. And you can expect Barkley to continue using his resources for good causes. That continued this past week, partly because the 61-year-old Barkley never misses an episode of 60 Minutes.

A few weeks ago, the revered CBS news program aired a segment highlighting a prestigious 157-year-old Catholic school for high-achieving Black women. While they have since graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans and are now college students, Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson accomplished a seemingly impossible feat: proving the ancient Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry. This achievement defied the expectations of math experts.

This inspired Barkley to write a check for $1 million to St. Mary’s. It moved him so much that he wanted others like Johnson and Jackson to be afforded opportunities to break barriers in education. He spoke with AL.com earlier this week and revealed the motive behind his generous pledge.

“These beautiful Black women, man, they’re just the high achievers,” Barkley told AL.com Monday. “A lot is demanded of everybody at the school—high excellence. And these two young Black women did something in mathematics that was incredible. It just inspired me.”

While Barkley will leave $5 million in his will for scholarships for Black students at his alma mater, he also made another generous donation that will see Auburn as the benefactor. He’ll also donate $1 million to women’s athletics at the University.

“I just want to make sure I always take care of the women at Auburn because I worry about them more than anything during this NIL movement,” he said. “Everybody’s worried about football and basketball. I just want to make sure the women know I’ve got a lot of love and appreciation for them.”

[AL.com]