Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

Long-Distance Runners of the Civil Rights Movement \\ 141
There is little indication that other Jews were exerting (or seeking to exert) the
kind of heavy-handed influence that was Stern's stock in trade. In Stern's case,
however, the insistence on linking funding and control had significant consequences
for the Urban League; preserving the organization's independence and
integrity carried real costs. The Rosenwald Fund reduced and eventually withdrew
its support of the National Urban League during the 1930s. As well, Stern
resigned from the board of the Chicago Urban League and persuaded Rosenwald
to withdraw his support. Stern also campaigned, albeit with little success, to get
other foundations and businesses to follow suit. The cumulative effect of these
moves, coming on the eve of the depression, was to gravely threaten the Chicago
affiliate's financial security. 52
There is little indication that other Jews were exerting (or seeking to exert) the
kind of heavy-handed influence that was Stern's stock in trade. In Stern's case,
however, the insistence on linking funding and control had significant consequences
for the Urban League; preserving the organization's independence and
integrity carried real costs. The Rosenwald Fund reduced and eventually withdrew
its support of the National Urban League during the 1930s. As well, Stern
resigned from the board of the Chicago Urban League and persuaded Rosenwald
to withdraw his support. Stern also campaigned, albeit with little success, to get
other foundations and businesses to follow suit. The cumulative effect of these
moves, coming on the eve of the depression, was to gtavely threaten the Chicago
affiliate's financial security. 52
//
Other Jews, less intrusive than the Rosenwald Fund, played major roles in funding
the National Urban League. 53 Other Jews, less intrusive than the Rosenwald Fund, played major roles in funding
the National Urban League. The League's rolls carried the names of the
great German Jewish banking families of New York. Sachses, Schiffs, Seligmans,
and Warburgs were steady donors from the time of the League's founding; in the
1920s, no fewer than ten Sachses and eight Seligmans made annual contributions,
and Goldmans, Guggenheims, and Wertheims showed up as regular donors as
well. Despite the great wealth of these families, some of their individual contributions
were very small — $25, $50, $100, $250 a year. But Jewish donors held a
disproportionate place among the handful of individuals who made the largest
annual gifts. A thousand dollars was a major gift in the League's early decades —
in a typical year in the 1920s, for example, there would be five or six individual
donors who made gifts of that size, two or three of whom would be Jews. (In addition
to Rosenwald, these donors included Samuel and Louise Goldman Sachs, who
made substantial annual gifts after their daughter Ella's death in 1922, and Felix
and Frieda Schiff Warburg, who became major donors beginning in 1927.) From
time to time, too, Jews were the source of unusual, outsized benefactions.
It was the private foundations, however, that made the critical difference in
the National Urban League's financial survival, and here, too, Jews played a major
role. In the 1920s, the average annual income of the National Urban League was
$55,100 (the range was roughly from $26,000 to $75,000). The Rockefellers provided
the lion's share of the funding: throughout the decade, the Laura Spelman
Rockefeller Memorial alone accounted for one-fifth to one-sixth of the League's
annual income; for the period 1925-29, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., himself, together
with the Memorial (or, beginning in 1929, its successor, the Spelman Fund of
New York), accounted for more than one quarter. The National Urban League
attracted only two other regular contributors of comparable size. One was the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which made annual grants of $8,000 for five
years in the 1920s and in other years contributed upward of $2,500. The other
was the Altman Foundation, established in 1913 by the German Jewish merchant
53 The League's rolls carried the names of the
great German Jewish banking families of New York. Sachses, Schiffs, Seligmans,
and Warburgs were steady donors from the time of the League's founding; in the
1920s, no fewer than ten Sachses and eight Seligmans made annual contributions,
and Goldmans, Guggenheims, and Wertheims showed up as regular donors as
well. Despite the great wealth of these families, some of their individual contributions
were very small—$25, $50, $100, $250 a year. But Jewish donors held a
disproportionate place among the handful of individuals who made the largest
annual gifts. A thousand dollars was a major gift in the League's early decades—
in a typical year in the 1920s, for example, there would be five or six individual
donors who made gifts of that size, two or three of whom would be Jews. (In addition
to Rosenwald, these donors included Samuel and Louise Goldman Sachs, who
made substantial annual gifts after their daughter Ella's death in 1922, and Felix
and Frieda Schiff Warburg, who became major donors beginning in 1927.) From
time to time, too, Jews were the source of unusual, outsized benefactions.
It was the private foundations, however, that made the critical difference in
the National Urban League's financial survival, and here, too, Jews played a major
role. In the 1920s, the average annual income of the National Urban League was
$55,100 (the range was roughly from $26,000 to $75,000). The Rockefellers provided
the lion's share of the funding: throughout the decade, the Laura Spelman
Rockefeller Memorial alone accounted for one-fifth to one-sixth of the League's
annual income; for the period 1925-29, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., himself, together
with the Memorial (or, beginning in 1929, its successor, the Spelman Fund of
New York), accounted for more than one quarter. The National Urban League
attracted only two other regular contributors of comparable size. One was the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which made annual grants of $8,000 for five
years in the 1920s and in other years contributed upward of $2,500. The other
was the Altman Foundation, established in 1913 by the German Jewish merchant