Before the dark money of the Koch Brothers, before the billions of the Ford Foundation, there was the Garland Fund. In 1922, a young idealist named Charles Garland rejected a million-dollar inheritance. In a world of shocking wealth disparities, shameless racism, and political repression, Garland opted instead to invest in a future where radical ideas—like working-class power, free speech, and equality—might flourish. Over the next two decades, the Garland Fund would nurture a new generation of wildly ambitious progressive projects.
Witt has meticulously uncovered and documented the lost history of one of the United States’ most efficient charitable funds. With incredible detail, he has reconstructed the ways a modest fund endowed by a reluctant heir managed to reshape American civil rights in less than 20 years ... Witt dives deep into this social setting, revealing not only big-picture moments and movements but also the people and legal decisions that created the environment for this crisis of American life ... Witt has written a book that is at its most nuanced when he’s laying out the details of trials and case law, as well as their roots and impact. But not only does he measure the influence of the fund, which dissolved in 1941, he also documents the directors who advocated for various causes and the arguments that went into major funding decision.
Fascinating though lengthy and overly detailed ... The author gives short shrift to the work of contemporaneous grant makers such as the Julius Rosenwald Fund ... Mr. Witt yearns for a revival of radical philanthropy but fails to note that it has already occurred.
