ABSTRACT
Especially after World War I, but certainly to some degree before, signifi cant structural and economic changes in Black/White relations convinced philanthropists and their foundation administrators of the need for scientifi c inquiry into black conditions. The concerns of the foundation administrators were particularly important, for at this time most corporate philanthropies shifted from patrimonial to bureaucratic control, characterized by professional staff dominance. Predominant among the race-related activities of such foundations as the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the PhelpsStokes Fund, the John Slater Fund, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller foundations were educational projects.1 Leonard Outhwaite, an anthropologist from an affl uent west coast family, race relations program offi cer in the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial from 1923 to 1929, saw “science”—meaning empirical research-as the means to resolve black adjustment problems. He became the major foundation offi cer in the Rockefeller foundation circuit behind the inter-World War institutionalization of race research in prestigious American universities and research organizations. Thus, a detailed examination of his funding perspectives and patterns would be most benefi cial for understanding the history of race philanthropy in the origins and development of inter-World War race relations, i.e., black, sociological study.
