Oprah Winfrey is spearheading a high-profile campaign to bring attention to Breonna Taylor's case. Winfrey featured Taylor on the cover of September's issue of her magazine and set up 26 billboards in Louisville, Kentucky, demanding charges against the officers involved in her death.
Oprah Winfrey is making a massive $5 million donation to help black and brown communities fight coronavirus in Chicago.
Oprah Winfrey announced via Twitter that she will be donating $10 million to help Americans during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The OWN founder and former talk show titan said Thursday that $1 million of her donation would go to America's Food Fund.
I am donating $10 million overall to help Americans during this pandemic in cities across the country and in areas where I grew up. For more on this Fund and how everyone can be of service, watch this free AppleTV+ conversation here: https://t.co/n7L6drnpcV
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) April 2, 2020
Philanthropist Oprah Winfrey visited Morehouse College Monday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program and made a surprise announcement. She donated $13 million to continue the scholarship fund, pushing her total investment to $25 million, which is the largest endowment in the College’s history.
Winfrey made the surprise announcement Monday afternoon, on a day in which she met with 47 Oprah Winfrey Scholars that she welcomed as “sons.” She also attended a special luncheon with Morehouse College faculty and staff, the Board of Trustees, and other dignitaries. An oil portrait was unveiled to honor the philanthropist for her generous support of Morehouse over the years.
Winfrey said she was thrilled that the gift that launched the Oprah Winfrey Endowed Scholarship 30 years ago has touched so many lives. Winfrey said she was especially impressed with the current Oprah Scholars that she met Monday. She pledged to continue to fund the program so it could support the education of future men of Morehouse.
Winfrey said she gave to Morehouse College in 1989 because she believes that the College has a “moral core” and mission to develop servant leaders focused on excellence—something that is similar to the teachings she learned as a child.
“I felt that the very first time I came here,” Winfrey said. “The money was an offering to support that in these young men. I understand that African American men are an endangered species. They are so misunderstood. They are so marginalized.
“Where and when I can lend support to try to change that image, I do,” she stated. “That is what Morehouse is doing. It is saying ‘This is who we really are.’”
Over the last 30 years, the scholarship program has funded the education of almost 600 scholars, giving them opportunities for global experiences that would open their classrooms to the four corners of the world, said Morehouse President David A. Thomas.
An impressive number of Morehouse Men have benefitted from Winfrey’s $12 million initial investment in the program since 1989. Among them are: Mayor Randall Woodfin, a member of the Morehouse Class of 2003, who, at age 36, was elected in 2017 as the youngest mayor of Birmingham; and Oluwabusayo “Tope’” Folarin, a 2004 alumnus who graduated from Morehouse with a perfect 4.0 grade point average became Morehouse’s third Rhodes Scholar, and is now an award-winning writer.
“I’m grateful to Oprah Winfrey for her generosity,” said President Thomas, who referred to the philanthropist as “Dr. Winfrey,” throughout the day. (Morehouse was one of the first colleges to honor Winfrey with a doctorate.)
“I am also feeling hopeful for Morehouse and what it has garnered in terms of philanthropic support with gifts like Oprah’s and Robert Smith’s. I am hopeful that this will also get others to step up with their support of Morehouse, but even more broadly, historically black colleges and universities.”
Nathan Rolle, a senior Oprah Scholar who is majoring in International Studies and minoring in Journalism, said it was an honor to meet the philanthropist who funded his scholarship.
“Getting to meet Ms. Winfrey for the first time in my life, taking an individual photo with her — not a lot of people in the world can say that,” he said. “I’ve looked up to Mrs. Winfrey my entire life. This day is the highlight of my Morehouse experience.”
More than 500 people attended Monday’s tribute to Winfrey at Morehouse College. Special invited guests on campus to hear Winfrey speak included: Ambassador Andrew Young; President Emeritus of Morehouse College Robert Franklin ’75; the Honorable Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms; the Honorable Mayor of Birmingham Randall Woodfin ’03; the Atlanta University Consortium Leadership; civil rights activist Joseph Lowery; Councilman Cleta Winslow; and technology entrepreneur and investor Paul Judge ’99.
Oprah Winfrey surprised attendees at the United Negro College Fund’s 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon in Charlotte, North Carolina., when she matched a $1.15 million donation, bringing the organization’s total donations at the event to over $2 million.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the United Negro College Fund had hoped to raise $1 million at the event on Saturday to further its support of HBCUs. And it had already done that, with a running tally at the event showing that $1.15 had already been raised, but in the words of Oprah herself, “We do want to make this the world record-breaking event.”
Oprah’s announcement of matching the $1.15 million donation was met with raucous applauds and cheers from the 1,120 people present, most of whom were women, as the Observer notes.
“I believe in the power of education,” Winfrey said during her keynote address. “There is nothing better than to open the door for someone.”
Boom! The awesomeness that is @oprah just matched the $1million dollars that was raised during the #UNCFCharlotte Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon. Yes, so now over $2million was raised to support #HBCUs this afternoon! Peep this👇🏾#UNCF #blackgirlmagic ❤️🙏🏿 @ Oprah pic.twitter.com/lYeceynhFC
— UNCF (@UNCF) September 28, 2019
Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey joined Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams at a campaign rally in Marietta Georgia. Winfrey, who took the stage to booming applause, said she wanted to come to Georgia to support Abrams because she saw how Abrams is "handling herself" amid an onslaught of "haters."
Watch the entire rally below:
Media icon Oprah Winfrey will hit the campaign trail this week for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Winfrey will participate in two town hall events with Abrams -- one in Marietta and one in Decatur -- on Thursday to aide her campaign in what has become a highly competitive, closely watched race.
"Oprah Winfrey has inspired so many of us through the years with her unparalleled ability to form real connections and strengthen the bonds of family and community," Abrams said in a statement Wednesday. "I am honored to have Oprah join me for uplifting and honest conversations with voters about the clear choice before us in this election and the boundless potential of Georgians."
It's a rare political endorsement for Winfrey, who backed former President Barack Obama during the primaries in 2008 and lent her support to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. On Tuesday, she appeared in a video with NBC News' Maria Shiver to urge people to vote, saying she's a political independent before adding, "people think I'm a Democrat."
Read more: Oprah to hit campaign trail for Stacey Abrams
“Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture,” opens June 8 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and continues through June 2019. The exhibition will use the story of Winfrey and her 25-year daytime talk show as a lens to explore contemporary American history and culture, especially issues of power, gender and the media. It will feature video clips on a range of subjects, interactive interviews with Winfrey, costumes from her films Beloved and The Color Purple and artifacts from Harpo Studios in Chicago, home of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
“This exhibition examines the power of television,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s founding director. “Just as Oprah Winfrey watched TV coverage of the civil rights movement and was shaped by the era in which she was born and raised, she has gone on to have a profound effect on how Americans view themselves and each other in the tumultuous decades that followed. She has a place in the museum with a long line of women who did extraordinary things in their time—Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Maya Angelou—women who worked to redeem the soul of America.”
Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host, received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and is the nation’s first self-made African American female billionaire. This new Smithsonian exhibition probes the way in which America shaped Winfrey and how Winfrey’s work has shaped America.
The exhibition is in three sections: America Shapes Oprah, 1950s–1980s, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Oprah Shapes America. Museum curators Rhea L. Combs and Kathleen Kendrick put Winfrey’s story into context for visitors: “During her 25 years on broadcast television, her remarkable ability to connect in a familiar way with diverse audiences was crucial to her success. Many of the values she espoused on her show—including empowerment, education, spirituality and philanthropy—were rooted in her African American identity and upbringing.”
In the first section, America Shapes Oprah, key events in Winfrey’s life are considered in relationship to the broader political, social and cultural changes happening in the country. Artifacts include items from Winfrey’s childhood when she was deeply affected by the working women in her life, as well as artists, authors and activists whose works gave voice to the experiences of African American women. Among the highlights: the high school diploma earned by Carlotta Walls, one of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Central High School in Arkansas in 1957; a pennant carried by Edith Lee Payne, a 12-year-old girl from Detroit, at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; images of women activists, including Pauli Murray, an attorney and Episcopal priest who helped organize the March on Washington, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm; and works by artist Elizabeth Catlett.
The exhibition also examines the evolution of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which dominated daytime TV from 1986 through 2011. Watched by millions in 145 countries, the show won 48 Daytime Emmy Awards, and featured a wide range of celebrities and challenging, rarely discussed topics such as beauty, relationships, sexual abuse and current affairs. Winfrey herself received a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
The exhibition comes full circle with a section titled Oprah Shapes America. It explores Winfrey’s global influence that extends far beyond the world of TV, journalism and entertainment. The phenomenon of “The Oprah Effect”—Winfrey’s ability to shape public opinion and change people’s lives—has long been a subject of fascination and debate; it has raised important questions about the relationship between race, gender and power and about whose voices deserve to be heard and whose perspectives and experiences matter.
“Watching Oprah” is located in the museum’s Special Exhibitions gallery, a 4,300-square-foot exhibition space located on the concourse level near the elevator that takes visitors to the first level of the History Galleries. The exhibition is supported by MGM Resorts International, Target, Bank of America, and FedEx Corporation. The public can join the online conversation using #WatchingOprah and explore the exhibition online at www.nmaahc.si.edu/watchingoprah.
Celebrities are putting their financial might behind a march on Washington being organized by students who survived last week’s mass shooting that left 17 dead at a Parkland, Florida high school.
Earlier on Tuesday, George and Amal Clooney announced they are donating $500,000 to the upcoming “March For Our Lives” — and now talk show titan Oprah Winfrey has said she will match their donation:
George and Amal, I couldn’t agree with you more. I am joining forces with you and will match your $500,000 donation to ‘March For Our Lives.’ These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard.
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) February 20, 2018
After Oprah Winfrey's Golden Globes speech conversation has reached a fever pitch of an Oprah run for presidency in 2020. While there are many reasons that a run would be tough there are also many reasons why Oprah could do it. I wouldn't dismiss a Oprah 2020 run so easily. Listen to my 2 minute explanation below:
During a CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama made it quite clear to those of us holding out hope that she would ever run for office that that's not going to happen. Watch her statement below.
Oprah Winfrey signaled her endorsement of presumptive Democratic party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in an interview that aired today on “Good Morning America.”. Watch the announcement below.
[SOURCE] Oprah Winfrey and Lee Daniels are among the stars set to honor the achievements of African-Americans in television at a gala next month.
Winfrey and Daniels will be among the special guests at the Paley Center for Media’s tribute on May 13 in New York City.
The event will recognize milestones such as the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and the 35th anniversary of the launch of TV network BET (Black Entertainment Television).
President and CEO of the Paley Center, Maureen J. Reidy, says in a statement, “Television, more than any other medium, has paved the way for social change, and this momentous African-American tribute is a great expression of the Paley Center’s mission to highlight the critical role of media within our society.”
In addition to Winfrey and Daniels, other celebrities slated to attend include Diahann Caroll, Phylicia Rashad, Cicely Tyson, Anthony Anderson and Wynton Marsalis, among others.
[ SOURCE ] Oprah Winfrey, David Geffen and Larry Ellison will join together in a bid to buy the Los
Geffen said he and Ellison would run the team, while Winfrey would be an investor.
"Oprah is not interested in running the team," Geffen told Schaap. "She thinks it would be a great thing for an important black American to own [another] franchise.
"The team deserves a better group of owners who want to win. Larry would sooner die than fail. I would sooner die than fail. Larry's a sportsman. We've talked about this for a long time. Between the three of us, we have a good shot."
Winfrey's spokesperson, Nicole Nichols, issued a statement later Wednesday, confirming Geffen's claim. "Oprah Winfrey is in discussions with David Geffen and Larry Ellison to make a bid for the Los Angeles Clippers should the team become available," Nichols said in the statement.
Silver was asked Tuesday whether the league was considering more minority ownership in response to the sanctions against Sterling.
"As you know, we have an African-American primary owner in the league right now," Silver said. "Shaquille O'Neal just became a small owner of the Sacramento Kings. David Robinson is an owner of the San Antonio Spurs. Vivek Ranadive, a person of color born in Mumbai, India, just became the primary owner of the Sacramento Kings. So I believe we have a very diverse league, but I'd always like to see it become more diverse."
