United Negro College Fund

Black Higher Education Pre-Founding

The UNCF was established in a precarious financial time in the nation's history. The effects of the Great Depression coupled with the immense strains of World War II left little money available to fund private black institutions of higher learning. The U.S. Office of Education published findings in 1943 stating that between 1930 and 1943, the overall income of black colleges and universities decreased by 15 percent and income from private gifts decreased by 50 percent. During this same period, two of the largest supporters of black colleges—the General Education Board and the Julius Rosenwald Fund—were turning their attention to other projects, leaving black colleges and universities facing significant financial strain. This financial strain was exemplified in the experiences of the UNCF's leading founder and first president, Dr. Frederick Douglass Patterson. Patterson succeeded Robert Moton as the president of Tuskegee Institute, one of the crown jewels of black tertiary education in the United States. Patterson was the third individual to lead Tuskegee, as Moton was mentored by Tuskegee's founder and initial president, Booker T. Washington. As an adept fund-raiser with strong ties to the white elite in both the north and south, Washington guided Tuskegee for more than 30 years with the help of benefactors who included some of the wealthiest men of the day, including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller Jr. Patterson lacked the contacts of Washington or Moton and found Tuskegee running a deficit of $50,000 a year when he became president in 1935.

Through correspondence with other leaders of other black colleges and universities, Patterson found that the financial issues faced by Tuskegee were not at all distinct to his institution. In January 1943, he published a piece in the Pittsburgh Courier urging private black colleges and universities to pool their resources in order to make a united fund-raising appeal and salvage their institutions’ futures. In April 1943, the heads of black colleges and universities, such as Spelman in Georgia, Bethune-Cookman in Florida, Dillard in Louisiana, and several others gathered at Tuskegee at the behest of Patterson. Each of the colleges present had quality “A” ratings, representing only the most elite black private tertiary institutions.

The summit at Tuskegee in 1943 united black college and university presidents for their shared goals of fund-raising and laid the foundation for the establishment of the UNCF. An exploratory committee chaired by Patterson following the meeting studied the budgets of the institutions present and outlined the feasibility of a united campaign. A budget of $100,000 was set to launch fund-raising efforts for what was originally termed the United College Drive, and in early 1944, the fund-raising work for what would become the UNCF formally began.

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