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Oprah Winfrey buys Morehouse student new phone after joking about his cracked one

‘We can’t have you out here viewing the world thru a cracked screen’
Oct 21, 2019

Even though Oprah Winfrey surprised Morehouse College with a $13 million donation just a few weeks ago, she’s still sending unexpected gifts.

» RELATED: Watch Morehouse students surprise Oprah with roses, portrait during scholarship announcement

During her visit earlier this month, Olufemi Yessoufou and his friend flagged down the mogul as she was riding around campus. Once he got her attention, he whipped out his phone to record the moment.

“Hey, Oprah,” the freshmen said in the recording.

“Hey. That’s me. That’s me in your cracked phone,” she joked.

The short clip went viral, garnering nearly 3 million views, more than 70,000 likes and over 10,000 retweets since it was uploaded.

Little did Yessoufou know, he’d be going viral again when the talk show host mailed him a new iPhone 11 with a sweet note.

It was dated Oct. 17 and read, “We can’t have you out here viewing the world thru a cracked screen or a cracked cover. The new camera you’re gonna love for sure!” She ended the message with her signature.

Yessoufou took to Twitter once more to thank Winfrey for the present, racking up another 79,000 likes and 17,000 retweets.

He later gathered a few of his Morehouse buddies to show his appreciation again and to announce a new initiative he’s working on called “Adopt A House,” which aims to encourage corporations to invest in renovations at the institution.

“Thank you, Ms. Winfrey,” he and a group of scholars said in an Instagram video. “A gift to one of our brothers is a gift to all of our brothers.”

View this post on Instagram

For starters, we would like to thank Ms. Oprah Winfrey and her team for her generosity in both her gift to the Oprah Winfrey Scholars program and her gift to our brother Olufemi Yessoufou. Yes, she replaced his broken cell phone! Given this platform, we would like to introduce a project we, brothers of Morehouse, have been working on. It’s called Adopt A House. This is an idea we came up with to gain support from corporations and/ individuals to “adopt” their own piece of Morehouse by investing in the renovation and retrofitting process for on-campus facilities. All jokes aside, we are grateful for the day we were blessed with the opportunity to have that genuine conversation with Ms. Winfrey regarding our initiative. What you saw was her willingness to engage and have genuine fun and playful banter with us. What wasn’t seen was her sincere love for Morehouse’s mission and her Interest in our Adopt A House plan. Following our conversation, Ms. Winfrey lauded our plan and helped guide us to the next steps we need to follow as we aim to bring our plans to fruition. Again thank you so much, Ms. Oprah Winfrey, we genuinely appreciate your kindness and support! @oprah @oprahmagazine @morehouse1867 #morehouse

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» RELATED: Oprah Winfrey donates $13 million to Morehouse College

About the Author

Najja Parker is a multimedia journalist covering Black culture for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She is an engaging on-air talent, who has served as a host for the newsroom’s special projects and events, such as the movie premiere of “The South Got Something To Say,” a documentary chronicling the rise of Atlanta hip-hop.

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