ALL HAIL, DR. ROBERT SMITH

Robert F. Smith's extraordinary gift to 400 Morehouse College graduates in Atlanta, Georgia, announced on Sunday , May 19, 2019, tops any other that I have read or heard of in this age of insidious student debt. News reports say that Smith of Colorado, who was awarded an honorary doctorate degree, has agreed to pay-off the individual debts of the all-male college's 2019 graduating class of some $40 million, in addition to giving the college a separate $1.2 million! You talking about 'honoris causa', shonuff! I am stunned! Stunned as the students were stunned; as their parents, relatives were stunned! As Morehouse College administration was stunned! As the world was stunned! The only context that I have in history for such gratuitous magnanimity is Emperor Mansa Musa of Mali, West Africa, who wrecked the economy of Egypt and Saudi Arabia in his hajj to a Mecca in 1324-1325, by gifts of gold profusion, that lowered its value. On his return, he then bought it back, restoring the wrecked economies! There may be others of like, though different, generosity, like Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, who arranged for the erecting of 5,000 schools in the South, that Tuskegee's Washington's architect designed, with the money supplied by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of the Sears & Roebuck magnanimity. Rosenwald in addition to endowing Tuskegee to reduce Washington's need to travel to raise funds, built schools, shops, and teachers' homes in 15 states of the South and in 488 counties. He required the black communities to contribute labor, land and money to the process , and required the local school boards (who were racist) to agree to maintain the schools, as a condition of Rosenwald Funds gifts. Similarly, Dr. Robert Smith has asked that his graduation gift be paid forward by the Morehouse men to aid others. I praise God for this benevolent man, brother, billionaire, who also has given $20 million to the African American History Museum in Washington, D.C., more than any other donor. Smith is the Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data, and technology-driven companies. Bravo!