MacKenzie Scott, Mentored by Toni Morrison at Princeton, Gives $25 Million to Another HBCU: Lincoln University

MacKenzie Scott has donated $25 million to Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting historically Black university, continuing her substantial philanthropic commitment to HBCUs and organizations serving students of color. The gift takes on added significance given Scott’s own academic roots: she studied creative writing under Toni Morrison at Princeton University, where the Nobel Prize-winning novelist served as her thesis advisor and lifelong mentor.

A Literary Lineage

Scott graduated from Princeton in 1992 with a 168-page fiction thesis titled The Fathering Water, developed under Morrison’s guidance. “This writer that I admired so much also turned out to be such a gifted and devoted teacher,” Scott said in a 2017 Princeton article, revealing she had come to the university with “a secret hope of taking even one class with Toni Morrison.”

The relationship extended far beyond the classroom. Morrison praised Scott as “an extraordinary writer, almost full-blown” and continued mentoring her for nearly a decade as Scott developed her first novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, which was based in part on her thesis work.

In letters obtained by The New York Times, Morrison offered detailed editorial guidance and connected Scott with her own literary agent, Amanda Urban. “There’s a writer out there named MacKenzie and the profound pleasure of editing comes rushing back,” Morrison wrote, despite claiming she was glad not to line edit for a living.

The correspondence reveals Scott’s early struggles. After graduation, she took a waitressing job in New York that left her too exhausted to write. “I found myself with unpredictable and small chunks of time during which I either collapsed from exhaustion and frustration, or ruminated over the excruciating monotony of making and selling sandwiches,” Scott wrote to Morrison in September 1992—just a week after starting work at an investment firm where she met her future husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

From Princeton to HBCUs

The $25 million gift to Lincoln University represents Scott’s continued focus on educational equity and support for institutions serving communities of color. Lincoln University, founded in 1854 in Pennsylvania, educated notable alumni including Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes.

Scott’s HBCU philanthropy has been substantial and sustained, with previous donations to institutions across the country. The giving pattern reflects a commitment to addressing educational disparities—a cause that resonates with Morrison’s own legacy as an educator who championed Black voices and stories.

Morrison, who taught at Princeton from 1989 until her retirement and died in 2019, was the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her influence on Scott extended beyond craft to include “a real example of a life of passionate devotion to more than one calling,” as Scott described it.

Expanding Impact

Lincoln University officials have not yet announced how the $25 million donation will be allocated, but such transformative gifts typically support endowments, scholarships, infrastructure improvements, and program expansion.

The donation comes as HBCUs face ongoing funding challenges despite their outsized impact on Black educational attainment and professional success. HBCUs represent just 3% of U.S. colleges but produce nearly 20% of Black graduates and a disproportionate share of Black professionals in fields including medicine, law, and STEM.

Scott’s philanthropic approach, characterized by large unrestricted gifts and minimal public fanfare, has distributed billions to organizations focused on racial equity, economic mobility, and educational access. Her giving has accelerated since her 2019 divorce from Bezos, with her net worth estimated at over $30 billion.

Morrison wrote the blurb for Scott’s 2005 debut novel and remained a presence in her life until the novelist’s death. Now, Scott’s philanthropy echoes the values Morrison embodied: using privilege and platform to uplift marginalized voices and expand access to transformative education.

The Lincoln University gift represents more than financial support—it’s a full-circle moment connecting Morrison’s mentorship of a young writer at an elite institution to that writer’s support of an institution that has educated generations of Black students who faced barriers to the Ivy League world Scott entered