Historically Black medical schools have received a $600 million donation.

 "Bloomberg Philanthropies makes record-breaking gifts to the endowments of Meharry Medical College, Morehouse, and Howard University."

Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire and former New York City mayor, plans to donate $600 million to the country’s four historically Black medical schools. These schools award a significant percentage of medical degrees to Black doctors. Through his charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mr. Bloomberg will give $175 million each to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and Howard University College of Medicine in Washington.

These donations are believed to be the largest ever to any H.B.C.U.s, surpassing the $100 million gift Spelman College in Atlanta announced in January. Additionally, the foundation will give $75 million to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, and an additional $5 million to help start a new medical school at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, president and chief executive of Meharry Medical College, expressed that the gift is “just a major, major investment that will have a generational impact.”

The money is targeted at the medical schools’ endowments, which an announcement on Tuesday morning described as “significantly underfunded” due to entrenched discrimination and lagging federal and state support. Despite their small number, the historically Black medical schools are strong engines of social mobility for their graduates and are contributors to the well-being of Black communities, research shows.

Only about 5 percent of U.S. doctors are Black, according to a 2022 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges. However, graduates of historically Black colleges and universities account for half of the country’s Black doctors. In addition, in 2021-22, 10 percent of medical degrees awarded to Black graduates were granted by H.B.C.U.s, according to federal data. Mr. Bloomberg’s donation comes as medical schools are grappling with a new and possibly more challenging environment around the quest for a diverse student body due to the Supreme Court banning race-conscious admissions.

This move could further influence who is admitted to medical school, especially elite medical schools. Also, at least three medical schools — New York University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins University (in an initiative funded by Mr. Bloomberg in July) — have implemented free tuition for most or all students. There is some evidence that free tuition, while intended to provide more opportunity for lower-income students, can drive medical school admissions to become more competitive, in turn making them less diverse.

“We have much more to do to build a country where every person, regardless of race, has equal access to quality health care, and where students from all backgrounds can pursue their dreams,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. The donation aims, in a sense, to right a historic blow to Black medical education.

The Flexner Report of 1910, an exposé of medical education in general, led to the closing of five of the seven historically Black medical schools then in existence. It was recommended that only Meharry and Howard survive. Ever since, there has been a struggle to increase the number of Black doctors, who are likely to go into Black communities to practice and have been shown to achieve better outcomes for their Black patients.

This is not Mr. Bloomberg’s first contribution to H.B.C.U.s. In September 2020, his Greenwood Initiative announced a $100 million gift to the four H.B.C.U. medical schools to reduce student debt. Dr. Hildreth said the four college presidents had learned of Mr. Bloomberg’s newer, bigger gift last week at a gathering to celebrate his 2020 gift to them. He said he was excited that “it shows the rest of the country and the world” that Mr. Bloomberg and his philanthropic organization value H.B.C.U.s. The United States has a long lineage of H.B.C.U.s.

The first one, now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1837, predating schools such as the University of California and Cornell University. However, there has been limited financial support for them. Even though government funding is the most substantial revenue source for H.B.C.U.s, the schools generally receive far less money than other institutions.

Last year, the federal government sent letters to 16 governors, complaining that in recent decades their states had severely and illegally underfunded H.B.C.U.s. The cumulative toll, the Biden administration said, approached $13 billion. Furthermore, the United Negro College Fund, in a report released in January, noted that no H.B.C.U. had an endowment valued at $1 billion or more.