The Campaign to Create the & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park

Te Campaign seeks to promote the historic places in America, and establishment of a multi-site National the 2015 documentary flm, Why a National Park celebrating the life and legacy of “Rosenwald,” directed by flmmaker Julius Rosenwald, the son of Jewish Aviva Kempner. Inspired by the Park honoring immigrants who, afer achieving flm, representatives of the National Julius Rosenwald? great wealth leading Sears, Roebuck Parks Conservation Association and Company, became a visionary (NPCA) and the Trust began philanthropist. meeting, exploring the possibility of a National Park. Other highly dedicated What is a Julius Rosenwald partnered with volunteers soon joined the Campaign. African American communities Rosenwald school? across the South to build school Today Julius Rosenwald is barely houses for children who otherwise remembered, in part because, unlike would have had extremely limited others who created philanthropic access to the public education funds, he did not believe in perpetual to which they were entitled. As endowments. Each generation, he envisioned by the Campaign, the felt, should create wealth and direct park will include a visitor center in that wealth in ways appropriate to the to focus on Rosenwald’s time. In keeping with Rosenwald’s overall contributions and a number wishes, the Julius , of restored schoolhouses in several which he created in 1917, put itself states to be selected by the National out of business in 1948. Park Service. And yet, across 15 states of the Two things came together to create American South, there are places the impetus for the proposed park where the name Rosenwald IS - the ongoing work of the National remembered. Steeped in the Trust for Historic Preservation, traditional Jewish teaching of which in 2002 named the Rosenwald tzedakah - the importance of treating Schools of the American South to every human being with both its annual list of most endangered righteousness and justice - Rosenwald identifed as states, the Campaign has received particularly in need of and deserving input from a variety of historians, “I can testify that it is aid. educators, philanthropists and preservation experts. nearly always easier Afer reading “Up From Slavery,” meeting its author, Booker T. State Historical Preservation Ofcers to make a $1,000,000 Washington, and joining the Board from 14 states recommended to of the Tuskegee Institute in 1912, the Campaign that 55 Rosenwald honestly than to Rosenwald enthusiastically embraced Schools and one teacher home be dispose of it wisely.” the idea of partnering with African considered for inclusion in the park. American communities in the South, To date Campaign representatives JULIUS ROSENWALD many of them extremely rural, that have visited 35 School facilities and were already raising money to build gathered important data on them for the schoolhouses that state school a report that it will prepare on the systems were not Schools in early 2020. For more Campaign reliably providing. information, contact Between 1913 and 1932 Te Campaign also has had Teir enthusiasm Rosenwald provided a historic context study [email protected] and enterprise prepared to examine the helped encourage partial funding for 5,357 legacy of Julius Rosenwald and visit the website state school systems schools and related and of the schools, and the rosenwaldpark.org to begin to more buildings. African feasibility of incorporating adequately meet them into a Park. To make a tax-deductible donation their responsibilities American men and Send checks to: to provide women provided land, Te imaginative and far- education. labor, materials and reaching philanthropy Rosenwald Park Campaign of Julius Rosenwald is 19 Maplewood Park Court Tese buildings funding. an essential part of the - many of them American story in the Bethesda, MD 20814 one or two-room schoolhouses on twentieth century as the nation, Other donation options are country roads surrounded by felds wrestling with the legacy of slavery found on the Website. and woods - were a source of pride and continuing inequality, reached and afection in their communities. for ways of achieving a more perfect Te schools educated one-third of union. the African American children of the South in the years before the legal end Rosenwald’s funding of to segregation. Following the Brown schools and later awards of v. Board of Education ruling many fell into disrepair or passed into private fellowships to highly qualifed hands. and promising African American artists, scholars, writers and In more recent times communities from the suburbs of Washington, DC, scientists, many of whom to East Texas have come together to played important roles in the restore and preserve these simple Civil Rights movement, deserve structures, familiarly referred to as “Rosenwald Schools.” to be interpreted and celebrated in a National Park. With the goal of creating a Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historic Park consisting of a site in Chicago and schools in several