Shelby Steele & Thomas Sowell & Pepperdine University

Good morning all,

About two years ago, we established the Shelby Steele Foundation after my father received a generous donation from the Ray Morgan Jr. estate. The stipulation was to provide scholarships to the courageous and original thinkers of today and tomorrow.

For the last several months, I have been working with Dean Pete Peterson of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy and I am proud to announce that we have created the Shelby Steele - Thomas Sowell Scholarship that will begin supporting students in the Fall of 2025. I am an alum of that school and I cannot say enough about the quality of the education that I received there — it played an invaluable role in the making of “How Jack Became Black,” “What Killed Michael Brown?” and many other documentaries.

Here is the official scholarship announcement:

The School of Public Policy is delighted to announce the creation of the Shelby Steele-Thomas Sowell Scholarship through a gift from the Shelby Steele Foundation. This annual student scholarship will support selected students who meet one or both of two criteria:

• The student has overcome significant challenges in life and subscribes to the America values as embodied by Steele and Sowell;

• The student has an interest in pursuing a career at the intersection of public policy and media.

The mission of the Shelby Steele Foundation is to "invest in courageous and original thinkers for a better America." It was started by the author, commentator and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Shelby Steele and his filmmaker son, Eli Steele (MPP '11). The scholarship will also be named for the legendary economist, Thomas Sowell, a longtime friend of Shelby’s and also a senior fellow (Rose & Milton Friedman Senior Fellow) at the Hoover Institution.

Eli Steele, who was named School of Public Policy Distinguished Alumnus of 2023, directed this gift to SPP, noting, “SPP is one of the rare schools in America where free thought is embraced with the explicit purpose of getting at the truth of the matter without ideological constraints. It is our goal with this scholarship to keep encouraging that by giving strength to those who believe that the American principles of merit, freedom, and equality are the way forward." 

Pete Peterson, dean of the School of Public Policy stated, "I'm so grateful to Eli and the Shelby Steele Foundation for their investing in the 'original thinkers' we recruit here at SPP." Peterson added, "To have it named for two of America's great intellectuals in Steele and Thomas Sowell makes this such a great honor."

The new Shelby Steele-Thomas Sowell Scholarship joins dozens of other scholarship programs at the School Public Policy—all made possible by gracious donor seeking to support the next generation of public leaders.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you who have donated to the Shelby Steele Foundation. It has been a huge help and we will continue to seek out more quality institutions to provide scholarships too.

My best,

Eli