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."

Julius Rosenwald, an American clothier, became part-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1995, and eventually served as its president from 1908 to 1922, and chairman of its Board of Directors until his death in 1932. He became interested in social issues, especially education for African Americans, and provided funding through Dr. Booker T. Washington prior to founding the fund.

Unlike other endowed foundations, which were designed to fund themselves in perpetuity, The Rosenwald Fund was intended to use all of its funds for philanthropic purposes. It donated over 70 million dollars to public schools, colleges and universities, museums, Jewish charities and black institutions before funds were completely depleted in 1948.

The school building program was one of the largest programs administered by the Rosenwald Fund. Over four million dollars were spent to build over five thousand one-room schools (and larger ones), as well as shops and teachers' homes in the south. These schools became known as "Rosenwald Schools." In some communities, surviving structures have been preserved for their historical character.

The Rosenwald Fund was also one of the original backers of what later became the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study. With support from the Rosenwald Fund, an ambitious program was begun to improve the health of African-Americans in US southern states in 1928. When the Great Depression began a year later, the Rosenwald Fund was forced to remove its support. The subsequent search by the U.S. Public Health Service for financial support led the doctors to Tuskegee Institute. With this change from a treatment program to a medical experiment, the Tuskegee Experiments had begun.

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