UNCF Yesterday and Today
UNCF alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. attends a seminar at Morehouse College in 1948. |
In 1943, Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, president of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), wrote an open letter in the Pittsburgh Courier to the presidents of our nation’s private black colleges urging them to "pool their small monies and make a united appeal to the national conscience." His words would soon become the guiding principle for one of the world’s leading education assistance organizations. One year later, the United Negro College Fund was incorporated on April 25, 1944 with 27 member colleges and a combined enrollment of 14,000 students.
Since that time, UNCF has grown to become the nation’s oldest and most successful African American higher education assistance organization. It is a consortium of 39 private, accredited four-year historically black colleges and universities. Though UNCF has broadened its focus by offering more programs designed to enhance the quality of education for America’s brightest young minds, its commitment to providing financial assistance to deserving students, raising operating funds for member colleges and universities, and supplying technical assistance to member institutions remains unchanged.
The Fisk University graduating class of 1888. Future NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois is seated to the left. |
More than 300,000 educated men and women have worked to strengthen their communities thanks to the support they received from the United Negro College Fund. Each day graduates of the UNCF college experience are working to build a stronger nation as community leaders, educators, health professionals, and in numerous other vocations. UNCF is proud to make a difference in the lives of thousands of students each year, so they may in turn make a difference in the lives of millions of others for a lifetime.
