In previous posts this month, we’ve mentioned a few inventors and entrepreneurs who made charity a focus of their work. This week, we’d like to celebrate some more Black philanthropists and where they focus their energies. Giving back has a solid foundation in the Black community.
As for Lift Your TableⓇ folding table risers, we opened our new office in 2021. We deliberately chose to be close to the high school so that we can mentor and potentially hire budding entrepreneurs from our local area.
Eddie Brown
As a leader of one of the oldest Black investment management firms in the country, Mr. Brown established a foundation focused on his hometown of Baltimore. In addition, he and his wife donated to the Baltimore public school system to create a program for Black middle-schoolers to be successful in high school and beyond.
Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher
Another wealth management leader, Mr. Fletcher and his partners launched an initiative to continue the educational work of the seminal case, Brown v. Board of Education. His foundation also provides fellowships as well as a professorship at Harvard.
Deloris Jordan
You may know her better as basketball great Michael Jordan’s mom, but she established a foundation dedicated to making sure that kids have a good chance at education. She established an international foundation as well, with the first project dedicated to mother and child health in Kenya.
Alicia Keys
In addition to the amazing music that she creates, Ms. Keys is active in preventing AIDS among children.
Kevin Liles
The Baltimore-raised founder of Island Def Jam Music group, Mr. Liles built a foundation for providing life-changing opportunities for kids from underserved communities, and a separate one for Baltimore youth specifically.
Ursula Burns
She became the first Black CEO of Xerox, after beginning her career as an intern there. She was involved in founding a nonprofit to help more kids get into STEM, and is also a trustee for a leading foundation dedicated to social justice.
Richard Parsons
A former executive at both Citigroup and Time Warner, Mr. Parsons focuses on education opportunities, most notably through founding a scholarship fund at Howard University.
Russell Simmons
The “Godfather of Hip-Hop Philanthropy”, the co-founder of Def Jam Records spends his charitable energies on providing opportunities for urban kids, including helping them get more involved in the art world.
David Robinson
A former Navy midshipman and San Antonio Spurs basketball star, Mr. Robinson founded an academy named after George Washington Carver to help educate middle-schoolers in San Antonio.
Oprah Winfrey
She’s a major philanthropist, and you can read a bit more about her in our previous article on Black woman entrepreneurs.
Tom Joyner
He’s a hard-working radio man, and also a huge factor in sending kids to HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) through his foundation.
Bridget “Biddy” Mason
Born into slavery in Georgia, she became a midwife in nurse in Los Angeles after being freed. Though she wasn’t rich, she bought land in Los Angeles and founded churches, visited prisoners, and fed the poor.
Ida B. Wells
Though you might be most familiar with her from her involvement in founding the NAACP, she also was one of the founding members of the first Black settlement house in Chicago. It served as a kind of YMCA for young Black men (who were not allowed to join the YMCA at the time.)
Colonel John McKee
Made Lt. Colonel during the Civil War, after it was over he bought and managed real estate for newly freed slaves. At his death he left $2 million to a variety of charitable causes, including a school, orphanage, church, and rectory.
Osceola McCarty
She was a washerwoman in Mississippi, and saved most of her money during her life. At her death she donated the savings to become the most famous benefactor of the University of Southern Mississippi.
The work we do at Lift Your TableⓇ folding table risers helps us give back as well. If you need to lift up your folding table so you can stand and work (or craft) comfortably, please see our online store for the full line of folding table risers.
Lift Your TableⓇ… SAVE YOUR BACK!
