After leaving the White House, the 19th President's interests became less political and more toward social change. Upon learning of the recently established Slater fund, endowed by wealthy industrialist John Fox Slater to improve educational opportunities for 'freeman", Hayes took up its cause.
The Slater Fund's primary focus was "the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States, and their posterity, by conferring upon them the blessings of Christian Education."
