Charles Barkley has commited $2 million to battle blight in Birmingham and his Alabama hometown of Leeds. (File)
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Charles Barkley recently renovated his late mother’s house in Leeds — the small city east of Birmingham that’s still home in his heart.
During the process, he looked around the neighborhood where he grew up and was saddened by what he saw in the plethora of abandoned homes and lots — the same sight Barkley knows exists in neighborhoods throughout Birmingham.
He decided to do something about it.
The former Auburn star, Basketball Hall of Famer, television commentator, and one of Alabama’s most prolific philanthropists, says he will commit $2 million to address blight in Birmingham and Leeds —$1 million for each city.
“I want to buy run-down homes and try to reinvigorate these areas,” he shared in a recent conversation. “That’s my next venture.”
In Leeds, Barkley said he’ll partner with the minority contractor who renovated his mother’s home to purchase and renovate surrounding properties. “He did an amazing job,” Barkley said.
He hasn’t yet settled on a strategy for addressing blight in Birmingham.
“I want to do some due diligence on who I can trust,” he said. “That’s my game plan.” In recent years, Barkley has donated at least $15 million to various causes and institutions.
Last year, he donated $1 million to women’s athletics at Auburn, plus another million specifically to the Tigers women’s basketball program.
He also donated $1 million to St. Mary’s Academy, a 157-year-old, high-achieving Catholic school for young Black women in New Orleans after being inspired by a “60 Minutes” segment featuring two former students who independently solved a math problem thought to be impossible.
“These beautiful Black women, man, they’re just the high achievers,” Barkley said at the time. “A lot is demanded of everybody at the school—high excellence. And these two young Black women did something in mathematics that was incredible. It just inspired me.”
He also donated $1 million to the Alabama Community College System, toward its efforts to lower the state’s recidivism rate. The system, comprising 24 colleges throughout the state, is part of Reentry Alabama, a consortium under the auspices of the Alabama Commission on Reentry that aims to cut the state’s recidivism rate in half by 2030.
Additionally, Barkley has donated $1 million to ALS research in Alabama in the name of former Auburn teammate Gary Godfrey, who was diagnosed with the disease in January 2019, and to the Wounded Warrior Project.
In recent years, Barkley has donated $1 million to several Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Spelman, Tuskegee, Miles College, Morehouse, Alabama A&M, Clark Atlanta, Bethune-Cookman, and Jackson State.
In 2023, Barkley revealed that he was changing his will, redesignating the $5 million he will leave to Auburn to be used for scholarships for low-income Black students.
“That’s just my way of trying to make sure Auburn stays diverse,” he said then.
As for the donation to address blight in Birmingham, Barkley said he wants to work with Mayor Randall Woodfin and Michael Pickett, the interim head of the police department.
“I want to do everything I can to help Randall and the interim police chief fix up neighborhoods and get people living in these houses again,” he said.
