Beginning with the period before the Civil War, when their charitable focus was on abolishing slavery and securing aid for ex-slaves, through today, when their giving is likely to be combinations of individual and organization voluntarism and monetary or material support of beneficiaries well known to the donor, African Americans have a rich philanthropic history, according to Adrienne Lash Jones, associate professor emerita of African-American studies at Oberlin College.
Dr. Jones, who became a member of the Cleveland Foundation board in 1988, had made scholarly studies of African-American philanthropy, an area of history underappreciated by the larger society and perhaps even by some African Americans themselves. She recognized that the Cleveland Foundation was well positioned to help raise awareness among African-American Clevelanders about the societal impact and personal rewards of philanthropic engagement.
In 1993, Dr. Jones, several other current or former members of the foundation’s board, including the Reverend Elmo A. Bean (upper left), pastor of St. James A.M.E. Church, Doris A. Evans, M.D. (upper right), and businessman David G. Hill (bottom right), and a select number of other African-American civic leaders, including Cleveland Municipal Court judge Lillian W. Burke (bottom left), accepted the foundation’s invitation to form an African-American outreach advisory committee.
The group, which was renamed the African-American Philanthropy Committee in 2001, has sought, through a variety of educational activities, to nurture and broaden the charitable pursuits of African Americans who are generous supporters of their churches or active in fraternal or sororal organizations devoted to community service, and to inspire others who have yet to find a personally meaningful way to give back to their community.
The African-American Philanthropy Committee has recently begun to sponsor biannual summits on the use of wealth for charitable purposes. The 2010 and 2012 summits were open to members of the public and attracted a broad range of attendees, including young adults who were encouraged to perpetuate African-American traditions of philanthropy that can be traced back to (among other antecedents) the Free African Society, a mutual aid society founded by free blacks in Philadelphia in 1787.