Description
April 9, 1905 - February 10, 1995
Politician and Creator of the Fulbright Scholarship
Arkansas senator and educator James William Fulbright was a post-World War II internationalist who fought against an American retreat into isolationism. He served in the US Congress from 1945 to 1974, where he was the longest serving Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also served as Chair of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. Senator Fulbright’s most significant legacy is the Fulbright program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, which was established to increase mutual understanding between the people of the US and other countries through the exchange of knowledge and skills. The Fulbright program distributes competitive, merit-based grants to students, scholars, teachers, professionals, artists, and scientists to travel on international exchange. The Fulbright program provides 8,000 grants annually, and it is quite prestigious in its design and awardees; 43 Fulbright scholars have gone on to earn the Nobel Prize, while 78 have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Senator Fulbright received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.