Franklin Thomas (1934-2021)
Filed under the name Franklin · February 25, 2026
Okay so Franklin Thomas became the Ford Foundation's first Black president and spent decades doing actual, structural work on urban renewal and philanthropy, which is basically the opposite of the internet-clout version of 'giving back' we see now where somebody posts a check for five seconds. This guy was doing generational infrastructure work, the kind that doesn't trend but actually changes whether a neighborhood has a future. I grew up hearing my parents talk about what it took just to get a fair shot after leaving Baghdad, and there's something about people who use real institutional power to widen the door for others that gets me every time, no matter what era they're from. It's easy to be cynical about big foundations doing PR-flavored charity, but reading about the actual scope of what he did, this feels like the real thing, not the performance of it. Anyway — going to go feel inadequate about my three-jobs schedule compared to a guy who restructured entire foundations. Respect, though. Genuinely.