The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), is an organization incorporated on April 25, 1944, that commits itself to empowering black students in the pursuit of higher education by offering them scholarships and other support services. The group was founded by the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Frederick Douglass Patterson. He was bestowed the award by former U.S President Ronald Reagan. The award is the highest civilian honor in America. Patterson collaborated with American educator and stateswoman Mary Jane McLeod Bethune and others to launch the organization.

United Negro College Fund Formation

The founders of the non-profit appealed to several college presidents and William J. Trent-a major advocate for the education of African Americans in 1944 to help raise funds. Through hard work and persistent the group was able to raise enough funds. Trent made a significant contribution of $78 million to help the founders on their course to empower African American students. One of the former U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy was also a personal donor. Walter Annenberg, an American philanthropist and investor, made a huge donation in 1990 as well.

United Negro College Fund Accomplishments

By 2005, the United Negro College Fund had helped enhance the lives of approximately 65,000 students studying in 900 universities and colleges across the country. The value of scholarships and grants totaled over $113 million. The organization reports that about 60% of the students were the first in their families to go to college. Many scholarship recipients come from humble origins where the average annual family income is less than ,000.

The United Negro College Fund does not discriminate in terms of ethnicity, though historically the emphasis was on supporting African Americans who have been historically underrepresented in institutions of higher learning and barred from attending. UNCF member institutions and scholarships have helped produce graduates who have specialized in the arts, healthcare, politics and business. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, an iconic civil rights movement leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient was also a UNCF scholarship recipient. The current President of the United Negro College Fund is Michael Lomax, the son of Los Angeles-based attorney Lucius W.

Lomax. Past presidents include William H.

Gray and Vernon Jordan. Gray was a member of the Democratic Party and an accomplished politician whereas Jordan was a civil rights activist and an American business executive.

Notable Members

• Alex Herman– A politician who became the first African – American woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor. Herman actively helped African American laborers and women access employment opportunities.
• Shelton Jackson– A writer, film director, producer and actor. Jackson is most widely known for directing the 1986 film, “She’s Gotta Have It”. The film involves a woman playing with the feelings of three men and the viewers get to witness the feelings provoked by the arrangement.
• Samuel L. Jackson– A renowned figure in the movie industry. He became popular in the early 1990s when he was cast in the film Goodfellas” as the character Henry Hill a mob family associate.