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One of the most influential philanthropists of the early 20th century, Edwin Rogers Embree was the scion of generations of abolitionists and integrationists. He ably served the Rockefeller Foundation and when Julius Rosenwald created a foundation for his philanthropic activity, he called on Embree to be its head. The Rosenwald Fund is best known for constructing more than 5,300 schools for rural black communities in the South. In the 1940s, Embree became more personally engaged with race relations in the U.S. He chaired Chicago's Commission on Race Relations, helped create Roosevelt College, and was co-founder of the American Council on Race Relations. Late in life, Embree was president of the Liberian Foundation, devoted to improving health and education in Africa's oldest republic.