MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, who worked and helped him build Amazon into a billion-dollar company, on Wednesday donated $17 million to Howard University College of Medicine to train needed physicians and another $63 million to Howard University.

Her gifts come on top of a $64 million donation she made in 2020–$40 million– and in 2023–12 million. Scott and Bezos divorced after 25 years of marriage, and she received approximately $36 billion.

The money, which will be used in part to support a new Academic Medical Center, a transformative facility in line with the innovation center funded through Scott’s $12 million gift in 2023. 

“This $17 million unrestricted gift will help accelerate the expansion of our new Academic Medical Center, which will enhance our ability to train future generations of physicians and health professionals while improving access to quality care for the patients and communities we serve. Ms. Scott’s generosity will have a lasting impact on medical education, research, and health equity.”

Scott studied under Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison while attending Princeton, and that relationship may have influenced her donation. 

This new $80 million contribution deepens that partnership and reaffirms Howard’s role as a national leader in higher education, health sciences, and social impact.

That center was developed by the College of Medicine in partnership with the College of Engineering and Architecture. It will help students explore technologies that can improve patient care and expand the frontiers of science. 

Howard’s College of Medicine occupies a unique place in both higher education and the American medical community. 

Established in 1868, just one year after Howard University’s founding, it is the first and oldest medical college at an HBCU, but it’s more like a case survivor following the purge of Black medical schools.

The closure of Black medical schools in the United States was primarily due to the 

The Flexner Report, which was released by Abraham Flexner in 1910, and paid for by the Carnegie Foundation. The foundation was supported by John D. Rockefeller, the oil magnate, and other wealthy donors.

In the early 1900s, half of U.S. doctors practiced holistic medicine—using knowledge from Native Americans, herbalists, and European traditions. 

But Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire, saw a huge problem: you can’t patent natural cures. 

Around the same time, scientists discovered petrochemicals—chemicals derived from oil that could be used to make synthetic drugs. Rockefeller saw an opportunity: monopolize medicine just like he monopolized oil. Profit was the only goal. 

He teamed up with Andrew Carnegie and funded a nationwide “medical review.” The Flexner Report’s goal was to shut down natural medicine schools and replace them with pharmaceutical medicines.

Flexner criticized many medical schools for not meeting the standards set by the American Medical Association. The report led to the closure of about 75% of U.S. medical schools, including five of the then seven Black medical colleges. The remaining five were permanently shuttered, and the implications of these school closures have had a lasting impact on the number of African American medical school graduates.

The Flexner Report put an end to most Black medical schools

Abraham Flexner was not a doctor; he was an educator who attained a bachelor’s degree in arts from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. He was hired by the Carnegie Foundation to evaluate medical schools, leading to the publication of the Flexner Report in 1910, which aimed to standardize and improve medical education in the United States and Canada. 

Despite his lack of medical training, his report had a large impact on the structure and standards of medical education in the U.S. The report was strongly supported by Rockefeller, who could manufacture medical products from oil, selling them again and again. 

He teamed up with fellow plutocrat Andrew Carnegie and funded a nationwide “medical review” to shut down natural medicine schools and replace them with pharmaceutical-driven institutions.

The report directly led to the closure of 5 out of 7 Black medical schools in the US. However, other sources estimate the number of schools closed as high as thirteen(13) black medical schools. 

The medical schools that remained open were Howard University Medical School in Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. The medical school was founded by the United Church of Christ.

Both the Flexner Report and the JAMA network agree that at least five schools would be closed. Many of the eight remaining schools in the JAMA article were closed before the report or had few graduates.

In addition, no new Black medical schools opened between 1920 and 1987, when the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta was established, and later the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in California.

If Black medical schools had continued, there would be an additional 10,000 to 30,000 Black doctors. And if HBCUs opened additional medical schools at a rate similar to White schools, the number of African American physicians would have increased dramatically.

Right now, about 5.7% of physicians in the United States identify as Black or African American, according to the latest data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.