# Rosenwald Fund

The Rosenwald Fund (also known as the Rosenwald Foundation, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation) was established in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald and his family for "the well-being of mankind." Rosenwald became part-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1895, serving as its president from 1908 to 1922, and chairman of its board of directors until his death in 1932.

## History

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.
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.
The Rosenwald Fund also made fellowship grants directly to African-American artists, writers, researchers and intellectuals between 1928 and 1948. Civil rights leader Julian Bond, whose father received a Rosenwald fellowship, has called the list of grantees a "Who's Who of black America in the 1930s and 1940s." Hundreds of 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 around $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.
In 1929, the Rosenwald Fund funded a syphilis treatment pilot program in five Southern states. The Rosenwald project emphasized locating people with syphilis and treating them, during a time when syphilis was widespread in poor African-American communities. 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.

## 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.

### 1928

* James Weldon Johnson, writer and activist; returning fellow 1930-1931

### 1929

* Frances Davis, nurse and activist
* Abram Lincoln Harris, economist; returning fellow 1939, 1945
* Willis J. King, Methodist bishop, college president, and sociologist
* Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, nutritionist
* Ruby Stutts Lyells, librarian
* Augusta Savage, sculptor; 1929-1931 fellowship
* Julian Steele, social worker, politician, and activist; 1929-1930 fellowship
* Clarence Cameron White, composer and violinist; 1929-1931 fellowship

### 1930

* Franz Alexander, psychoanalyst; 1930-1932 fellowship
* Marian Anderson, opera singer
* Richmond Barthé, sculptor
* William E. Blatz, developmental psychologist
* William Stanley Braithwaite, writer
* Paul Cornely, physician, public health pioneer, and activist
* Ethel McGhee Davis social worker and university dean
* Mollie E. Dunlap, librarian and bibliographer; 1930-1931 fellowship
* Ruby Elzy, opera singer; 1930-1931 fellowship
* Simon Haley, agricultural scientist
* Charles S. Johnson, sociologist and university president
* Dorothy B. Porter, librarian, bibliographer, and curator; 1930-1931 fellowship, returning fellow 1944
* Carleton Washburne, education reformer
* Monroe Work, sociologist and archivist

### 1931

* Horace Mann Bond, historian, social scientist, and college administrator; 1931-1932 fellowship
* Ralph Bunche, political scientist and diplomat
* Alan Busby, agricultural scientist
* Mercer Cook, diplomat, writer and translator; returning fellow 1937
* Mabel Byrd, economist and civil rights activist
* John Dollard, psychologist and social scientist
* Charles R. Drew, surgeon and medical researcher
* Louis Israel Dublin, statistician
* W.E.B. Du Bois, sociologist, historian, writer, civil rights activist; returning fellow 1933-1934
* Ruth Anna Fisher, historian and archivist
* Roscoe Conkling Giles, surgeon and physician
* Langston Hughes, poet, activist, novelist and playwright, returning fellow 1941
* Henry A. Hunt, education reformer
* Raphael Lanier, diplomat
* Camille Nickerson, pianist, composer, and musicologist
* William Edouard Scott, painter
* John W. Work III, composer and musicologist; 1931-1932 fellowship

### 1932

* Wallace A. Battle, education reformer and university founder
* Ambrose Caliver, education reformer
* Allison Davis, anthropologist; returning fellow 1939-1940
* Ellsworth Faris, sociologist

### 1933

* Margaret Bonds, composer and pianist
* John P. Davis, journalist, lawyer and activist

### 1934

* Lorenzo Greene, historian; returning fellow 1940
* Percy Lavon Julian, research chemist and pharmaceutical innovator; 1934-1935 fellowship
* Kelly Miller, mathematician, sociologist and writer

### 1935

* St. Clair Drake, sociologist and anthropologist; 1935-1937 fellowship, returning fellow 1946
* Katherine Dunham, dancer and choreographer; 1935-1936 fellowship
* Zora Neale Hurston, writer, anthropologist and filmmaker
* Claude McKay, writer and poet; returning fellow 1943

### 1936

* Josephine Wilkins, civil rights activist

### 1937

* Lewis White Beck, philosopher
* Benjamin A. Botkin, folklorist and writer
* Harmon White Caldwell, lawyer and university president
* John Tyler Caldwell, political scientist and university president; 1937-1938 fellowship
* Horace R. Cayton, Jr., sociologist and writer
* William Schieffelin Claytor, mathematician; 1937-1938 fellowship
* Frank Marshall Davis, writer and labor activist
* Aaron Douglas, painter
* John Hope Franklin, historian; 1937-1938 fellowship
* Margaret Jarman Hagood, sociologist and demographer
* Clinton Everett Knox, diplomat; 1937-1938 fellowship
* James Raymond Lawson, physicist and university president; 1937-1938 fellowship
* Ralph E. McGill, journalist and newspaper publisher
* Benjamin Arthur Quarles, historian; returning fellow 1945
* Bonita H. Valien, sociologist and writer; returning fellow 1939
* Preston Valien, sociologist and writer; returning fellow 1939

### 1938

* Arna W. Bontemps, poet, writer, and librarian; returning fellow 1942
* John Aubrey Davis, Sr., political scientist and civil rights activist; 1938-1940 fellowship
* Shirley Graham Du Bois, writer, composer, and activist; 1938-1939 fellowship
* Rufus Carrollton Harris, lawyer and university president
* George Duke Humphrey educator and university president
* Lewis Wade Jones, sociologist
* Fred B. Kniffen, geographer and anthropologist
* Ruth Smith Lloyd, anatomist; 1938-1939 fellowship
* James LuValle, chemist and Olympic athlete; 1938-1939 fellowship
* Ira De Augustine Reid, sociologist
* Charles Shannon, artist
* Frank M. Snowden, Jr., historian, classicist, and diplomat
* Howard Swanson, composer; 1938-1939 fellowship
* Joseph T. Taylor, sociologist and university dean

### 1939

* May Justus, writer, educator, and civil rights activist
* John Whitefield Kendrick, economist
* Lawrence D. Reddick, historian; returning fellow 1945
* Lillian Smith, writer; 1939-1940 fellowship
* Hugh H. Smythe, sociologist, writer, and diplomat; 1939-1940 fellowship
* William Grant Still, composer; 1939-1940 fellowship
* Melvin E. Thompson, politician and governor of Georgia
* Lorenzo Dow Turner, sociolinguist; returning fellow 1940 and 1945

### 1940

* Charles Alston, artist; 1940-1941 fellowship
* William Attaway, writer
* Paul P. Boswell, physician and politician
* Selma Burke, sculptor
* Robert L. Carter, lawyer, civil rights activist, and US District Court judge
* Kenneth B. Clark, social psychologist
* Mamie P. Clark, social psychologist; 1940-1942 fellowship
* Marion Vera Cuthbert, writer and college dean
* Charles Twitchell Davis, literary critic; 1940-1941 fellowship
* Edwin Adams Davis, historian
* James A Ford, archaeologist
* Henry Aaron Hill, chemist; 1940-1941 fellowship
* Jacob Lawrence, painter; 1940-1942 fellowship
* Ulysses Lee, academic
* 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
* 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

* Julien 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