Southern Education Foundation Open House

Southern Education Foundation (SEF), founded as the Peabody Fund in 1867, works to ensure equity and excellence in education for all students in the South. SEF utilizes research, leadership development, and advocacy to address K-12 reform, higher education restructuring with a commitment to historically black college and universities (HBCUs), and the development of policies and practices that concentrate on student interests across seventeen southern states. Founder George Peabody designed the Peabody fund to educate the emancipated population of Blacks and poor whites following the Civil War. Later, with support from the Slater Fund, Jeanes Foundation, and Virginia E. Randolph Fund, Southern Education Foundation was formed and became a leader in public education within the South. Notable SEF affiliates include First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, W.E.B Dubois, Booker T. Washington, and Benjamin E. Mays.