Edwin Rogers Embree: The Julius Rosenwald Fund, Foundation Philanthropy, and American Race Relations

One of the most influential philanthropists of the early 20th century,
Edwin Rogers Embree was the scion of generations of abolitionists and
integrationists. He ably served the Rockefeller Foundation and when Julius Rosenwald
created a foundation for his philanthropic activity, he called on Embree to be its
head. The Rosenwald Fund is best known for constructing more than 5,300 schools for
rural black communities in the South. In the 1940s, Embree became more personally
engaged with race relations in the U.S. He chaired Chicago's Commission on Race
Relations, helped create Roosevelt College, and was co-founder of the American
Council on Race Relations. Late in life, Embree was president of the Liberian
Foundation, devoted to improving health and education in Africa's oldest
republic.