Oprah Winfrey is lending her support for historically black colleges at a Charlotte fundraiser.
Winfrey is the keynote speaker at the 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon Sept. 28 at the Westin Charlotte. Proceeds from the fundraiser go to UNCF, which provides student support and scholarships at independent HBCUs. Five private black colleges are in North Carolina, including Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte and Livingstone College in Salisbury.
The gala, which honors local women whose make an impact the Charlotte region, is sold out.
“We are elated to have Oprah Winfrey join us as we continue to honor the legacy of Dr. Angelou and celebrate 75 years of impact at UNCF,” said Michael L. Lomax, UNCF’s president and CEO. “Her commitment to the next generation of leaders— especially young women of color—mirrors our efforts in closing the educational gap to ensure better futures for us all.”
Winfrey, founder of OWN, a cable television network, a movie production company and O, The Oprah Magazine, is perhaps best known for her long-running syndicated TV talk show and philanthropy.
Winfrey has a history of paying it forward. In 2007, Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa to create education opportunities for academically-gifted girls from low-income homes. Graduates have continued on to higher education both in South Africa and abroad, including JCSU, where Winfrey was the 2017 keynote speaker.
“Oprah Winfrey inspires us to live a purposeful life,” said Tiffany Jones, UNCF’s Charlotte-based area development director. “As the Charlotte community comes together to raise a half a million dollars to send students to and through college, we are guaranteed an electrifying day for a great cause—education.”
Winfrey, a graduate of historically black Tennessee State University, has a history of giving to HBCUs. In addition to gifts to her alma mater, Winfrey established the Oprah Winfrey Endowed Scholarship Fund at Morehouse College in 1989, where the total gift is now $12 million as well as Spelman College, one of two HBCUs for women.
UNCF named the annual luncheon after Angelou, a civil rights activist, educator and women’s advocate who lived her later years in Winston-Salem where she was a professor at Wake Forest University. She died in 2014.
On the Net:
uncf.org/Charlotte
by Herbert L. White | The Charlotte Post
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Monday, September 9th 2019 at 5:13AM
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