Thurgood Marshall Fund raises $1.6 million

The Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (TMSF), an organization which supports public Black colleges, raised $1.6 million at its annual New York Dinner. Some 1,500 business leaders, educators, celebrities and college students joined actress-singer Diahann Carroll, mistress of ceremonies, for TMSF's 17th Anniversary Awards Dinner.

Honorees at the annual gala were Carly S. Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., Royall M. Mack, corporate vice president of Gillette Co. (retired), John W. Garland, president of Central State University and an alumnus, Virgis W. Colbert, executive vice president, Miller Brewing Co., immediate past chairman of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund Board.

TMSF, named for the late U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, is the only national organization of its type that provides merit-based scholarship and programmatic support to students attending the nation’s public HBCUs. It also provides capacity building support to its 47 member schools.

Since its inception in 1987, the fund has awarded more than $50 million in scholarships and other support enabling more than 5,000 students to attend public HBCUs.