Topic: Race & Social Justice
Black Education and Rockefeller Philanthropy from the Jim Crow South to the Civil Rights Era
Applying a vast fortune to the American race problem, but with decades of false assumptions and well-intended approaches that fell short.
The Fairy Godmothers of Women’s Studies
Moving scholarship by and about women from margin to center.
In Brief: Manels Before #MeToo
A foundation’s early criticism of the all-male conference panel, before #nomoremanels
In Brief: The South African Institute of Race Relations
How did a US foundation manage to work under apartheid?
In Brief: The 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference
The global conversation about women’s issues takes a big step forward.
Programming for the People: Diversity in Early Public Television
How philanthropy helped carve out a public space for the expression of race, culture, and critical perspectives.
Who Belongs in the Boy Scouts? Philanthropy’s Support for Black Scouting
A foundation struggled to make one of America’s oldest youth organizations more racially inclusive. But it only got so far under Jim Crow.
In Brief: James Baldwin’s Creative Writer’s Fellowship
How a foundation provided the final ingredient to an era-defining novel.
Funding a Sexual Revolution: The Kinsey Reports
The inside story of the study that first questioned binary sexuality and spurred outcry and controversy.
Ted Watkins and the Rockefeller Foundation: An Unlikely Partnership
How a charismatic community activist from Watts challenged a foundation’s civil rights strategy through a jobs training program.