You might not know the name Robert F. Smith, but he is the wealthiest black man in America and he’s seriously raising the bar for the very wealthy.
Smith made his billions after founding a private equity firm and is making headlines today after he pledged to pay off the entire graduating class of Morehouse College’s student loans.
Smith gave the commencement speech at the private, all-male, historically black college on Sunday and informed the graduating seniors he would be paying off their student loans.
"My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans!" -Robert F. Smith told the graduating Class of 2019 @RFS_Vista #MorehouseGrad2019 pic.twitter.com/etG8JhVA46
— Morehouse College (@Morehouse) May 19, 2019
Smith told the crowd of almost 400 graduating seniors, “On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we’re going to put a little fuel in your bus.”
“Now, I’ve got the alumni over there and this is a challenge to you, alumni. This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.”
“Now, I know my class will make sure they pay this forward and I want my class to look at these alumnus, these beautiful Morehouse brothers, and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward.”
Here’s a great story: While we’ve still got a lot of work to do to make college affordable for everyone, that didn’t stop Robert F. Smith from seizing an opportunity to make a difference. He’s erasing the student loan debt for this year’s @Morehouse grads. https://t.co/I3X38Pbpjz
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 20, 2019
Watch the speech here:
Billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith shocks Morehouse grads by promising to pay off student loans: "We're going to put a little fuel in your bus." https://t.co/Qobq8zrpJM pic.twitter.com/rxrQkZpBQL
— ABC News (@ABC) May 20, 2019
The students had no idea they’d be graduating debt-free. One of the students, Robert James, 21, told CNN how confused he and his classmates were, “We’re looking at each other like, ‘Is he being serious?’ That’s a lot of money.”
It really is, the gift is worth an estimated $40 million – a small dent in Smith’s almost $5 billion fortune.