Political Gabfest Gabfest Reads | The Radical Fund That Rewired American Progress
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Oct 18, 2025 John Witt, a Yale Law professor and author, delves into the Garland Fund's pivotal role in shaping civil rights and labor movements. He reveals how a million-dollar inheritance was transformed into a progressive powerhouse. Witt discusses key figures like A. Philip Randolph and James Weldon Johnson, linking their efforts to the fight against racial exclusion in unions. He also highlights lessons for modern progressives, advocating for innovative organizing and addressing today's misinformation challenges, all rooted in history's radical fund.
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He Refused A Million-Dollar Inheritance
- Charles Garland refused a million-dollar inheritance and sparked national attention by offering it to reformers.
- Upton Sinclair and Roger Baldwin convinced him to give the money to create the Garland Fund for progressive organizing.
Small Fund, Outsized Convening Power
- The Garland Fund was small but uniquely focused on left and labor causes in the 1920s.
- Its convening power produced new strategies across civil rights, labor, and liberal organizations.
Johnson’s Shift To Public-Opinion Campaigns
- James Weldon Johnson became the first Black director of the NAACP and shifted focus to changing public opinion after anti-lynching bills failed.
- The Garland Fund later funded early work that fed into the legal strategies leading toward Brown v. Board of Education.
