To advance a race: A historical analysis of the intersection of personal belief, industrial philanthropy and Black liberal arts higher education in Fayette McKenzie's presidency at Fisk University, 1915--1925

This dissertation used archival and historical methods to examine Fayette Avery McKenzie's tenure as President at Fisk University from 1915-1925. Specifically, this project investigates the influence McKenzie's work with Native Americans, industrial philanthropy, and American culture of the period played in McKenzie's administration. The research seeks to provide a more complete narrative of McKenzie's administration that is absent from current scholarship, and examine how McKenzie's work at Fisk helped advance Black liberal arts higher education. Analysis of McKenzie's personal papers and other primary and secondary sources provide a strong scholarly basis to examine his administration from multiple perspectives. Through an enhanced understanding of the forces that shaped McKenzie's presidency, the research will contribute to existing scholarship on the history of higher education in the United States (and specifically histories of Black higher education and Fisk University), industrial philanthropy in Black higher education, and presidential leadership at Black colleges and universities in the Progressive Era.