Notable Rosenwald Fellows
Revisiting the Rosenwald Fund Fellowship Program
In the summer of 1919, Chicago’s “Red Summer” race riot brought Julius Rosenwald and sociologist Charles S. Johnson into the same room. As they worked together to understand their city’s racial tensions, the two developed great mutual respect, and they remained connected throughout their careers. Nearly a decade later, that connection led to the creation of the Rosenwald Fund Fellowship Program.
Johnson became chairman of Fisk University’s Department of Sociology in 1928, the same year Rosenwald hired Edwin Embree to manage the Rosenwald Fund. Having seen firsthand the social impact of Black art and scholarship in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson (with his friend James Weldon Johnson) suggested to Embree the creation of a fellowship program to support African American artists and scholars with financial awards. Rosenwald approved, and, over the course of 20 years, the Fund awarded 918 Fellowships, two-thirds of which went to African Americans.
Johnson was selected as one of the first Fellows and later became the first African American trustee of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, where he served for many years on the selection committee for future Fellows, multiplying the impact of his own Fellowship.
Thanks to a Chairman’s grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH), the Campaign is expanding its storytelling around notable Rosenwald Fellows. EHT Traceries has been hired to add up to 100 more notable Fellows to the report—more than doubling the current list. They will provide an expansive overview of the Fellowship Program, as well as significant summaries of numerous individuals and social turning points, including the Harlem Renaissance and the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit.
This is a key step towards creating first an interactive exhibit, then a traveling museum exhibition on Rosenwald Fellows, which will showcase how the Rosenwald Fund helped talented African Americans access opportunities that ultimately shaped America’s civil, social, political, art, and literary history.
The Campaign is grateful to Board Member Leslie Lenkowsky for the introduction to NEH and looks forward to sharing unique stories from the project in the coming years.