Rosenwald Schools Remembered At Virginia Museum Of History And Culture

Before the United States Supreme Court in its 1954 unanimity Brown v. Board of Education ruling struck down “separate but equal,” determined racial segregation in U.S. public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of 14^th amendment of the Constitution, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 it codified “separate but equal” into law.

Segregation, of course, was never equal for African Americans.

Plessy v. Ferguson entrenched Jim Crow segregation, “whites only” water fountains, “colored” waiting rooms, back seats on the bus, and thousands of other indignities, humiliations, and inferior conditions that black citizens had to suffer compared to whites. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in public schools, especially in the South.

To call southern schools for black children in the first half of the 20^th substandard century for white children would be a grave insult to the word substandard. In many places, no effort was even made to provide public schools for African Americans Plessy v. Ferguson legally prohibit them from attending schools with white children.

Enter Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald.

As president of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute and the leading black educator in America, Washington developed the idea of ​​building schools for underserved African-American communities. Doing so would require a lot of money.

Rosenwald, president of the Sears Roebuck Company, had a lot of money.

In 1912, the pair teamed up, Washington providing the vision, Rosenwald the funding, and between then and 1932, the dynamic duo created 4,978 schools, as well as shop buildings and teacher housing, for a total of 5,357 structures in 15 southern states. The schools of Rosenwald.

The Virginia Museum of History and Culture explores the transformative impact of this program during a special exhibit, “A Better Life for Your Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America,” which will be able to see until April 20, 2025. .

“Before they met, the two men were already nationally famous, and Julius Rosenwald had read and admired Booker T. Washington's autobiography, 'Up from Slavery,'” Karen Sherry, curator of the exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. . “When they met in person in 1911 at a fundraiser in Chicago, they were united by a shared commitment to hard work and self-help as a means to improvement. This ethos was the foundation of the school's program of Rosenwald”.

This fundraiser was held at the Rosenwald Hotel in Chicago. Washington was the featured speaker.

Why did a super-rich white man in 1911 America care about blacks, especially black children, a view shared by virtually none of his contemporaries?

“Julius Rosenwald believed deeply in the promise of America. As the son of German Jewish immigrants, he was the embodiment of that promise,” explains Sherry. “He felt that the nation was being held back by its oppression of black Americans, and he wrote 'I do not see how America can go forward if some of its people are left behind.'” His Jewish faith also motivated him to share your good fortune with others.”

Rosenwald schools would serve more than 663,000 students, one-third of the region's black children, while employing thousands of teachers. They increased black literacy and prepared students for higher education and skilled professions. They became important community centers, fostering a deep pride among citizens who everywhere they turned in America were victims of abuse and ridicule. In Rosenwald's schools, a generation of future civil rights leaders were trained, including Maya Angelou, Medgar Evers, John Lewis, and members of the Little Rock Nine.

Lost in Time

Despite the enormous influence of the Rosenwald School in America, its history is little known today.

“This reflects, in part, how underrepresented black and Jewish stories are in our collective knowledge of American history,” Sherry said. “Another reason for the lack of familiarity with the program is that Julius Rosenwald believed that his charitable giving should be dropped, so the program ended with his death in 1932. Most schools did not call it 'Rosenwald.' When the founding generation of a school passed away, its connection to this program was forgotten.”

In addition to the erasure, only a fraction of Rosenwald's school buildings remain: approximately 500 of 5,000 structures.

“We missed the physical manifestations of this program,” Sherry added.

Atlanta-based photographer Andrew Feiler is among those previously in uniform. When Feiler learned of Rosenwald's story, it inspired him to embark on a three-year journey across the South documenting the remaining school buildings and their former students. His award-winning book, “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America,” evolved into the traveling exhibit.

The presentation at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture includes 26 Feiler photographs and stories of the Rosenwald schools in the South. The Museum complements this with a section that explores Rosenwald's experience and legacy in Virginia. Three hundred and eighty-two Rosenwald buildings were built across the state. This Virginia-specific content includes oral histories with alumni, artifacts, a recreation of a classroom, and additional resources.

Although most associated with Alabama, Booker T. Washington was born in Virginia.

“The Virginia Museum of History and Culture is proud to bring this timely story to light, not only for the inspiration it has to offer us, but also because it allowed us, before it was too late, to capture and preserve the reflections of many surviving alumni of Rosenwald Schools in Virginia,” VMHC President and CEO Jamie Bosket told Forbes.com. “The story of the Rosenwald School demonstrates the power of collaboration across racial, religious, regional, and economic lines. This is a lesson that can serve us well in divided times: When we come together, we can solve pressing problems in which our society faces”.

For a penny, for a pound

Building 5,000 schools in 20 years with marginal government support and often local resistance would be a remarkable achievement today. How did Washington and Rosenwald succeed 100 years ago?

“Initially, the Tuskegee Institute administered the program, but as it expanded and the demand for funding grew, the Rosenwald Fund established an agency to run it,” explains Sherry. “At the local level, black community groups worked with the state's existing public school system through the Department of Education or another administrative agency. That's part of the brilliance of the Rosenwald program,” he said. of interracial and state-local collaboration”.

The Rosenwald program required matching funds from local governments to establish the schools. It also required black residents to invest equally.

“It's important to note that the black communities took the initiative to get a Rosenwald school for their children,” Sherry added. “They had to raise the necessary funds, often with great difficulty, and they had to seek the approval and acceptance of local government officials.”

It is not difficult to imagine how badly received these requests might have been initially. Or how black families joining the South had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to co-finance a Rosenwald school for their neighborhood while putting food on the table.

Black families contributed money, land, building materials, and labor to realize their dreams of providing educational opportunities for their children. Let it be a reminder when someone is heard lying about how African American families and communities do not value education the way others do. This has never been the case.

Contrary to popular opinion, brown it didn't magically integrate schools overnight. The Supreme Court did not detail how to enforce its decision. School districts in the South and across the country are getting their feet wet. For decades. Almost no real progress was made until 1969, when the Supreme Court—again unanimously—ordered the immediate integration of the nation's public schools as part of its Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education decision

With integration finally enforced in the 1970s, many Rosenwald schools were repurposed or fell into disuse and then gradually fell into disrepair. Some continued to operate as schools and were expanded or renovated to serve new student populations.