History
The board was founded in New York City in February 1902 and chartered by the United States Congress on 12 January 1903, its object being the promotion of education throughout the United States, without distinction as to race, sex or creed. Beside gifts from several philanthropists, the board received, when chartered, a special gift of $1,000,000 from John D. Rockefeller for carrying on work in the southern United States. Upon evidence that this work would be effectively carried out, on 30 June 1905 he made an additional gift of $10,000,000 and in 1907 a further sum of $32,000,000.
Rockefeller eventually gave it $180 million, which was used primarily to support higher education and medical schools in the United States and to improve farming practices in the South. It helped eradicate hookworm and created the county agent system in American agriculture, linking research at state agricultural experiment stations with actual practices in the field. By 1934 it was making grants of $5.5 million a year. It spent nearly all its money by 1950 and ceased operating as a separate entity in 1960, when its programs were subsumed into the Rockefeller Foundation.
Read more about this topic: General Education Board
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