“A mind is a terrible thing waste, but a wonderful thing to invest in.” – United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is celebrating their 80th year of incorporation. In honor of this milestone, ESSENCE is recognizing the organization’s remarkable legacy and looking ahead to the next 80 years.
It all started with the former president of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Dr. Frederick Douglass Patterson. In 1943, Patterson penned a column for The Pittsburg Courier, proposing that Black colleges ally to raise funds that would mutually benefit the consortium.
In the year following its establishment, UNCF was founded; it had 27 member colleges that served 12,000 students and generated an income of $765,000. This amount would be equivalent to $10 million today, which was three times more than what the member institutions had been able to raise separately the year before.
Today, UNCF is the biggest private scholarship provider in the US for students of color. They are providing funds for 37 HBCUs and offering over $83 million in scholarships to more than 10,000 students annually at universities and colleges. The organization has raised over $5 billion to support over half a million college students.
Happy 80th Anniversary, UNCF! We applaud you for your continued investment in our future.
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