African Americans in Philanthropy in the USA in the

20th century

Supervisor: Svetlana V. Titova

Work done by: Marina Yurovskaya

2008

Contents:• Introduction;• Philanthropy as the part and parcel of human sciences

and the terms applied in it;• Different influences on philanthropy: a) historical and geographical,b) political,c) economical, d) social, and e) religious;• Methods and motivations for giving. (beyond

philanthropy);• Philanthromedia;• A new kind of philanthropy;• Conclusions.• Bibliography and webliography.

What is ‘Philanthropy?’

Definitions:

1) goodwill to fellowmen, especially active effort to promote human welfare;

2) a philanthropic act or gift;

3) an organization distributing or supported by philanthropic funds.

Source: Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1977, p.861.

• “Americans are regularly told by politicians and the media, that America is the world's most generous nation. This is one of the most conventional pieces of 'knowledgeable ignorance'.

"Why do People Hate America?" by Davies & Sardar

Which Countries Set

the Best Examples:

A Comparison

of the Worlds Most

Generous Nations

Aid to Developing Countries

Generous ?!

2005

“Doing well and doing good”

Source: The Economist

Patron saints of American philanthropy

• Andrew Carnegie believed that “the man who dies rich, dies disgraced.”

John Rockefeller

Bill Gates of Microsoft Pierre Omidyar of eBay

Andrew Carnegie

Gifts of money are generally less important than gifts of time.

African Americans

• “One reason little has been written about black philanthropy is that the word philanthropy evokes images of large foundations and wealthy philanthropists, which are scarce in the black community. When one expands the concept to include giving money, goods, and time; blacks emerge as having a strong, substantial philanthropic tradition.”

Citation: Dr. Emmett Carson, leading scholar of black philanthropy.

History

• African-American philanthropy is complex because it is influenced by people's history of slavery, oppression and segregation.

African-American Civil Rights Movement

(1955-1968)

• This movement refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African-Americans and restoring suffrage in Southern states.

Participation in boycotts

• December 1, 1955;

• Rosa Parks (the "mother of the Civil Rights Movement")

Civic Engagement

The NAACP Civic Engagement Department has developed a 2006 Voter Empowerment Program (VEP '06) as a nonpartisan campaign designed to empower African Americans and people of color by increasing awareness and participation in the electoral process.

Education Department

The overall goal of the NAACP National Education Department is to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality public

education by eliminating all education related racial and ethnic disparities.

Organization of NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People) events

Meals for Freedom Riders

Freedom Rides were journeys by Civil Rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States.

Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New

Orleans on May 17.

Children of lynching victims

Lynching refers to the practice in the 19th and

20th centuries of the humiliation and killing of people by mobs acting outside the law. These murders, most of them

unpunished, often took the form of hanging and

burning. To demonstrate a ritual of power, mobs

sometimes tortured the victim.

March on Washington

A. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 in support of demands for elimination of employment

discrimination in defense industries.

He called off the march when the Roosevelt Administration met the demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 barring racial

discrimination and creating an agency to oversee compliance with the order.

“I Have a Dream” speech by King.

The Great Depression

It was a dramatic, worldwide economic downturn

beginning in some countries as early as 1928. The beginning of the Great

Depression in the United States is associated with the

stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as

Black Tuesday.

Great Slump

Desegregation of schoolsIn the early 1950's, racial

segregation in public schools was the norm across America. Although all the schools in a

given district were supposed to be equal, most black schools were far inferior to their white

counterparts.

Brown v. Board of Education

v.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy for public education, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and required the desegregation

of schools across America.The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision did not abolish segregation in other public

areas, though it did declare the permissive or mandatory segregation that existed in 21 states

unconstitutional.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• A well-known leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man who devoted his life to giving it to other people, their lives and their fate.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the

true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that

all men are created equal.‘ "

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the

color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Booker Taliaferro Washington

Blacks were Republican;

After 1890 many lost the vote in the deep South;

The surest way for blacks eventually to gain equal rights was to demonstrate patience,

industry, thrift, and usefulness and said that these were the key to improved conditions for African Americans in the United States and that they could not expect too much, having

only just been granted emancipation.

Graph on African-American contributions

Black households who give to charity

53%47%

Give to charity

National Conferences

The National Conference on Black Philanthropy has become the pre-eminent gathering place to discuss, celebrate and plan for African American achievement in philanthropy. The conferences feature, on average, over 40 workshops, panels and plenary sessions exploring black participation in grant making, fundraising, individual giving, and faith-based philanthropy through the Historically Black Church.

The Future

• Philanthromedia• A new kind of philanthropy

that will appear

Acknowledgements

Working on the project was not an easy matter, though I became interested in the topic I’ve chosen.

I would like to thank you all for your patience and

listening.

I am grateful to Svetlana V. Titova who has helped me with developing my work and has made the working

process very pleasant and enjoyable.