An Unplanned Life
eBook - ePub

An Unplanned Life

A Memoir

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

An Unplanned Life

A Memoir

About this book

A major autobiography of a remarkable life that broke down racial barriers, transformed institutions, and energized the struggle for justice, by the former president of the Ford Foundation

“Frank has that quality of honesty and authenticity and people trusted him . . . and because very disparate people trusted him, he could bring them together across their differences.”
—Gloria Steinem

Franklin Thomas was one of the most influential people of our time. As former president of the Ford Foundation (the first African American to hold this position), former president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (the first community development organization of its kind), member of countless corporate boards, and a key player in facilitating the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, Thomas shaped public policy, philanthropy, and the movement for human rights for over half a century.

An Unplanned Life offers an insider’s account of some of the most crucial transformations of the contemporary era: efforts to rebuild America’s cities, struggles to reform philanthropy, and the quest to establish a global order based on human rights and racial equity. As a story of firsts, Franklin’s memoir also chronicles a formative era, when a generation of African Americans first broke through into the halls of power, navigating complicated and sometimes treacherous cultural and political currents.

Much of Franklin Thomas’s life was marked by his desire to stay out of the spotlight, and to let his accomplishments speak for themselves. Now, in An Unplanned Life, we have Thomas’s full story, in all of its nuance, drama, and richly narrated detail.

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Yes, you can access An Unplanned Life by Franklin A. Thomas in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. Foreword by Darren Walker
  5. 1. Growing Up in Bedford-Stuyvesant
  6. 2. A Higher Education
  7. 3. Choosing Law
  8. 4. Policing in Mayor Lindsay’s New York
  9. 5. A Call to Come Home
  10. 6. A Battle in Bed-Stuy
  11. 7. Restoration
  12. 8. A New Approach to Community Development
  13. 9. Giving the Community Control
  14. 10. 1968
  15. 11. The Loss of Robert Kennedy
  16. 12. Dueling Boards
  17. 13. The World of Corporate Boards
  18. 14. When Two Years Becomes Ten
  19. 15. An Unexpected Presidency
  20. 16. A South Africa Study Commission
  21. 17. Reimagining the Ford Foundation
  22. 18. A Changing Landscape in South Africa
  23. 19. Positive Results
  24. 20. Mandela’s Freedom
  25. 21. President Mandela
  26. 22. An Inauguration
  27. 23. A Farewell to Ford
  28. 24. The Study Group
  29. 25. A Call to Action
  30. 26. Full Circle
  31. Acknowledgments
  32. Index
  33. About the Author
  34. Publishing in the Public Interest
  35. Copyright