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Rosenwald Fund

The Rosenwald Fund was established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald and his family for "the well-being of mankind."

History
Rosenwald Schools- School building program The rural school building program for African-American children was one of the largest programs administered by the Rosenwald Fund. Over $4.4 million in matching funds stimulated construction of more than 5,000 one-room schools (and larger ones), as well as shops and teachers' homes, mostly in the South, where public schools were segregated and black schools had been chronically underfunded. This was particularly so after disenfranchisement of most blacks from the political system in southern states at the turn of the 20th century. The Fund required white school boards to agree to operate such schools and to arrange for matching funds, in addition to requiring black communities to raise funds or donate property and labor to construct the schools. These schools, constructed to models designed by architects of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University), became known as "Rosenwald Schools." In some communities, surviving structures have been preserved and recognized as landmarks for their historical character and social significance. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has classified them as National Treasures. Two exhibits at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC highlight this impact. One exhibition is entitled, "A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America." The second entitled: "The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph x Fry & Welch" discusses the Rosenwald Schools within a broader context of the influence of education and architecture influenced Black community and history. Rosenwald Fellowships The Rosenwald Fund also made fellowship grants directly to African-American artists, writers, researchers and intellectuals between 1928 and 1948. (Prior to this, William Samuel Quinland was funded in 1919.) Civil rights leader Julian Bond, whose father received a Rosenwald fellowship, called the list of grantees a "Who's Who of black America in the 1930s and 1940s." Close to one thousand grants were disbursed to artists, writers and other cultural figures, many of whom became prominent or already were, including photographers Gordon Parks, Elizabeth Catlett, Marion Palfi, poets Claude McKay, Dr. Charles Drew, Augusta Savage, anthropologist and dancer Katherine Dunham, singer Marian Anderson, silversmith Winifred Mason, writers Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, dermatologist Theodore K. Lawless, and poets Langston Hughes and Rita Dove. Fellowships of between $1,000 to $2,000 were given out yearly to applicants and were usually designed to be open-ended; the Foundation requested but did not require grantees to report back on what they accomplished with the support. The Fund ended its involvement in 1932, due to lack of matching state funds (the Fund required jurisdictions to contribute to efforts to increase collaboration on solving problems). After the Fund ceased its involvement, the federal government decided to take over the funding and changed its mission to being a non-therapeutic study. The infamous Tuskegee syphilis study began later that year, tracking the progress of untreated disease, and took advantage of poor participants by not informing them fully of its constraints. Even after penicillin became recognized as approved treatment for this disease, researchers did not treat the study participants. Unlike other endowed foundations, which were designed to fund themselves in perpetuity, the Rosenwald Fund was designed to expend all of its funds for philanthropic purposes before a predetermined "sunset date." It donated over $70 million to public schools, colleges and universities, museums, Jewish charities, and African American institutions before funds were completely depleted in 1948. == Notable fellowship recipients ==
Notable fellowship recipients
This is a selected list of notable Rosenwald Fund Fellowship recipients from the years the fund's fellowship program was active, 1928-1948. • William J. Trent, Jr. economist and civil rights activist • James A. Washington, Jr., civil rights lawyer, university dean, and D.C. Superior Court Judge • Mark Hanna Watkins, linguist and anthropologist • Eric Williams, historian and first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago; returning fellow in 1942 • C. Vann Woodward, historian 1941 Cleo W. Blackburn, social scientist and college president • David Blackwell, mathematician • Herman Branson, physicist, chemist, and college president • William Montague Cobb, physician and anthropologist • Helen Octavia Dickens, physician and writer • John Henry Faulk, storyteller and radio host; 1941-1942 fellowship • Cornelius Golightly, teacher, civil rights activist, and education administrator • Adelaide M. Cromwell, sociologist, historian, and preservationist; returning fellow 1944 • Thomas C. Lea III, artist, writer, and historian • Mabel Murphy Smythe-Haith, economist, civil rights activist, and diplomat • Samuel Z. Westerfield, Jr., economist and diplomat • Bell Wiley, historian • Gordon Randolph Willey, archaeologist and anthropologist • Margaret Just Butcher, literary scholar, writer, and civil rights activist; 1941-1942 fellowship 1942 Thomas Bell, writer • Sterling Allen Brown, folklorist, poet, and literary critic • Joseph Delaney, artist • Owen Dodson, poet, novelist, and playwright • Wade Ellis, mathematician • William Fontaine, philosopher • Thomas Henderson Kerr Jr., composer • Margaret Morgan Lawrence, psychiatrist and writer • Arthur S. Link, historian; returning fellow 1944 • Herman H. Long, social scientist and college president • Jesse W. Markham, economist • Gordon Parks, photographer, musician, writer, and film director • Clarence F. Stephens, mathematician • Charles Henry Thompson, psychologist, writer, and civil rights legal theorist • Charles Henry Townes, physicist • Charles White, artist; 1942-1943 fellowship • J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., nuclear scientist, mechanical engineer and mathematician 1943 Julian Binford, painter • Mildred Blount, fashion designer • Marcus Bruce Christian, poet, writer, and folklorist • Woody Guthrie, singer-songwriter • Roi Ottley, journalist • Thomas Sancton, novelist and journalist; returning fellow 1945, 1947 • Hudson Strode, writer • Julius H. Taylor, physicist • Hale Woodruff, artist; 1943-1944 fellowship 1944 Margaret Bush Wilson, lawyer and activist • Esther Cooper Jackson, civil rights activist and social worker • E. Franklin Frazier, sociologist and writer • Robert Gwathmey, artist • Chester Himes, writer • Rayford Logan, historian • Pauli Murray, lawyer, activist, writer and Episcopal priest • Margaret Walker, poet and writer 1945 Conrad Albrizio, painter; 1945-1946 fellowship • Janet Collins, dancer and choreographer • Woody Crumbo, artist, musician and dancer • Dean Dixon, conductor; 1945-1946 fellowship • Ralph Ellison, novelist and literary critic • Elizabeth Hardwick, novelist and literary critic • Winifred Mason, jeweler • Charles Sebree, painter and playwright • Kenneth Spencer, opera singer and actor • Alma Stone Williams, pianist and music teacher 1946 Evelyn Boyd, mathematician • Nat Caldwell, journalist • Elizabeth Catlett, artist; 1946-1947 fellowship • Clifton O. Dummett, dentist and dental historian • Mark Fax, composer and musicologist • Natalie Leota Hinderas, pianist, composer and musicologist; returning fellow 1948 • John Tate Lanning, historian • Walter McAfee, astronomer • Willard Motley, writer • Dave Masato Okada, sociologist • Marion Palfi, photographer • Rose Piper, painter and textile designer 1947 William Artis, sculptor • Byron Burford, painter • Edward Burrows, historian and civil rights activist • Martin Dibner, writer • Grace Towns Hamilton, politician and social justice advocate • Robert E. Hayden, writer and U.S. Poet Laureate • Blyden Jackson, writer and literary critic • Ulysses Kay, composer; 1947-1948 fellowship • Thomas Hal Phillips, novelist, actor and screenwriter • John Rhoden, sculptor • George C. Stoney, documentary filmmaker • Alonzo Smythe Yerby, physician and public health official 1948 James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, poet and activist • Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., Tuskegee Airman, television and radio host, and college president • William James Cousins, sociologist • L'Tanya Griffin, fashion designer • Elizabeth L. Sturz, poet and social worker • Samuel L. Myers, economist and university president • Marion Perkins, sculptor • Liston Pope, pastor, theologian, and university dean • Pearl Primus, dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist • Oscar W. Ritchie, sociologist • Haywood Rivers, artist and gallerist • Samuel Reid Spencer, Jr., college president ==See also==
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