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Michael Bloomberg\u2019s organization Bloomberg Philanthropies is announcing a $600 million gift<\/a> to the endowments of four historically Black medical schools.<\/p>\n Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and the billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP, will make the announcement Tuesday in New York at the annual convention of the National Medical Association, an organization that advocates for African American physicians.<\/p>\n \u201cThis gift will empower new generations of Black doctors to create a healthier and more equitable future for our country,\u201d Bloomberg said in a statement.<\/p>\n Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared with white Americans, an\u00a0Associated Press series<\/a>\u00a0reported last year. Experts believe\u00a0increasing the representation among doctors<\/a>\u00a0is one solution that could disrupt these long-standing inequities. In 2022, only 6% of U.S. physicians were Black, even though Black Americans represent 13% of the population.<\/p>\n The gifts are among the largest private donations to any historically Black college or university, with $175 million each going to Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine. Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science will receive $75 million. Xavier University of Louisiana, which is opening a new medical school, will also receive a $5 million grant.<\/p>\n The donations will more than double the size of three of the medical schools\u2019 endowments, Bloomberg Philanthropies said.<\/p>\n The commitment follows a\u00a0$1 billion pledge<\/a>\u00a0Bloomberg made in July to Johns Hopkins University that will mean most medical students there will no longer pay tuition. The four historically Black medical schools are still deciding with Bloomberg Philanthropies how the latest gifts to their endowments will be used, said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies\u2019 Greenwood Initiative.<\/p>\n The initiative, named after the\u00a0race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma<\/a>\u00a0more than 100 years ago, was initially part of\u00a0Bloomberg\u2019s campaign<\/a>\u00a0as a Democratic candidate for president in 2020. After he withdrew from the race, he asked his philanthropy to pursue efforts to reduce the racial wealth gap and so far, it has committed $896 million, including this latest gift to the medical schools, Ezediaro said.<\/p>\n In 2020, Bloomberg granted the same medicals schools a total of $100 million that mostly went to reducing the debt load of enrolled students, who schools said were in serious danger of not continuing because of the financial burdens compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we talked about helping to secure and support the next generation of Black doctors, we meant that literally,\u201d Ezediaro said.<\/p>\n Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine, said that gift relieved $100,000 on average in debt for enrolled medical students. She said the gift has helped her school significantly increase its fundraising.<\/p>\n \u201cBut our endowment and the size of our endowment has continued to be a challenge, and we\u2019ve been very vocal about that. And he heard us,\u201d she said of Bloomberg and the latest donation.<\/p>\n In January, the Lilly Endowment gave\u00a0$100 million to The United Negro College Fund<\/a>\u00a0toward a pooled endowment fund for 37 HBCUs. That same month, Spelman College, a historically Black women\u2019s college in Atlanta, received a $100 million donation from Ronda Stryker<\/a> and her husband, William Johnston, chairman of Greenleaf Trust.<\/p>\n Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said the gift to Spelman was the largest single donation to an HBCU that she was aware of, speaking before Bloomberg Philanthropies announcement Tuesday.<\/p>\n Smith authored a 2021 report on the\u00a0financial disparities between HBCUs<\/a>\u00a0and other higher education institutions, including the failure of many states to fulfill their promises to fund historically Black land grant schools. As a result, she said philanthropic gifts have played an important role in sustaining HBCUs, and pointed to the billionaire philanthropist and author\u00a0MacKenzie Scott\u2019s gifts to HBCUs in 2020 and 2021<\/a>\u00a0as setting off a new chain reaction of support from other large donors.<\/p>\n \u201cDonations that have followed are the type of momentum and support that institutions need in this moment,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, said she felt \u201crelief,\u201d when she heard about the gifts to the four medical schools. With the Supreme Court\u2019s decision striking down\u00a0affirmative action<\/a>\u00a0last year and attacks on programs meant to support inclusion and equity at schools, she anticipates that the four schools will play an even larger role in training and increasing the number of Black physicians.<\/p>\n \u201cThis opportunity and this investment affects not only just those four institutions, but that affects our country. It affects the nation\u2019s health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Utibe Essien, a physician and assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who researches racial disparities in treatment, said more investment and investment in earlier educational support before high school and college would make a difference in the number of Black students who decide to pursue medicine.<\/p>\n He said he also believes the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and the backlash against efforts to rectify historic discrimination and racial inequities does have an impact on student choices.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard for some of the trainees who are thinking about going into this space to see some of that backlash and pursue it,\u201d he said. \u201cAgain, I think we get into this spiral where in five to 10 years we\u2019re going to see a concerning drop in the numbers of diverse people in our field.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n