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Preserving Rosenwald Schools by Mary S REVISED 2012 Preserving Rosenwald Schools by Mary S. Hoffschwelle Preserving Rosenwald Schools 2 3 PRESERVATION BOOKS Preserving Rosenwald Schools by Mary S. Hoffschwelle eginning in 1912, the Ros- together, this time to save those schools. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON enwald school building pro- These communities face numerous obsta- AND RURAL SCHOOLS gram, under the auspices of cles. Many schools have been abandoned In the turmoil after the Civil War, African Tuskegee Normal and Indus- or severely altered. Finding a new use Americans sought out educational oppor- trial Institute (now Tuske- poses a challenge, and funding and techni- tunities at schools opened by the Freed- Bgee University), began a major effort to cal assistance may be difficult to obtain. man’s Bureau, the American Missionary improve the quality of public education for And yet, Rosenwald schools continue to Association, and African Americans African Americans in the South. This effort find new life and new ways to serve the themselves. Eventually the task fell to led to the establishment of the Rosenwald needs of their communities. local counties and municipalities, who Fund. By 1928 one in every five rural schools in the South was a Rosenwald school; these schools housed one third of the region’s rural black schoolchildren and teachers. At the program’s conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 schools, 217 teachers’ homes, and 163 shop build- ings that served 663,625 students in 15 states. Julius Rosenwald and the Rosen- wald Fund contributed more than $4.3 million, and African American communi- ties raised more than $4.7 million. The program was a major force in rural school design. At the time, new ideas about pedagogy and health were bringing about changes in school designs. Concerns included lighting, ventilation, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) and Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) collaborated heating, sanitation, instructional needs, to provide African American children in the South with safe, purpose-built schools. and aesthetics—all intended to create a This school building program produced 4,977 schools and was a major force in positive, orderly, and healthy environ- rural school design during the first half of the 20th century. ment for learning. The Rosenwald school Photos courtesy Library of Congress program applied these progressive ideas to the rural South and created buildings This publication will help those were often mandated by state constitu- that served as models for all rural schools. interested in Rosenwald schools identify tions to provide one school system for Many of the Rosenwald schools former schools and understand how they whites and one for African Americans. In constructed between 1913 and 1932 functioned in the greater community. Case 1896 the Supreme Court decision Plessy remained in operation until the 1960s studies of successful projects illustrate v. Ferguson upheld “separate but equal” and 1970s when the 1954 Supreme Court potential new uses for schools, and a railroad cars, which set a precedent for ruling against racial segregation (Brown special section on interpretation will assist the segregation of public facilities, includ- v. Board of Education of Topeka) was organizations with strategies to tell the ing schools. Unfortunately, they were not implemented. Some fell into disuse or Rosenwald school story to different audi- equal; by the early 20th century most changed function as rural populations ences. A “grassroots guide” provides how- schools for African Americans across the declined. While many schools are gone, to information on getting started, steps for South were underfunded and in seri- there is a growing interest in the history rehabilitating a Rosenwald School, and ous disrepair. Black children learned in and preservation of existing structures. additional resources to guide community dilapidated buildings with few amenities Once again communities are coming organizations in their preservation efforts. other than makeshift desks and benches. ington attracted support from black and white Americans who agreed that LOWe’s CHARITABLE AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION economic and educational needs should be addressed first and feared that a more confrontational approach would unleash a white backlash. Washington’s overarching goal for southern African Americans was to ensure access to quality educational opportunities. To meet this end, he devised a strategy to provide children with safe, purpose-built school buildings. Washington planned to organize black school patrons to buy land and build schools that would then be turned over to local school authorities. These schools would feature a Tuskegee- style industrial curriculum combining basic literacy and numeracy skills with agricul- tural and trades programs for boys and home economics for girls. Knowing most African American communities could not afford these projects, Washington turned Durham’s Chapel School, Sumner County, Tenn. to the white philanthropists who sup- Photo courtesy of Tennessee Preservation Trust ported Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 Washington approached In 2008 the grassroots effort to preserve Rosenwald schools took a Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, great leap forward when the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foun- Roebuck and Co. and a new member of dation provided a $1 million grant to the National Trust for Historic Tuskegee’s board of trustees, with his Preservation to save 17 Rosenwald schools and, through adaptive idea about building schools for black use, to return them to vibrant facilities in their communities. In 2009 children in the rural South. Rosenwald and 2010 Lowe’s awarded an additional $1.5 million for the restora- had already shown interest in supporting building programs by offering matching tion of 24 more schools. Both the funding and the publicity generated grants for the construction of African helped create awareness of the national importance of these schools. American YMCAs. He was fascinated “The role Rosenwald schools played in the educational and civic by Booker T. Washington and agreed lives of communities throughout the South cannot be underesti- wholeheartedly with Washington’s phi- losophy of self-help as well as Tuskegee mated,” said Larry D. Stone, former chairman of the Lowe’s Chari- Institute’s Industrial Program. table and Educational Foundation. “Preserving these historic The same year, Rosenwald celebrated structures and returning them to be valuable gathering places is his 50th birthday by distributing gifts to important to our nation’s history and the communities where they a number of causes, including $25,000 are located—both worthy goals Lowe’s is proud to…support.” to Tuskegee for matching grants to Afri- can American teacher-training institu- tions. Washington gained Rosenwald’s Many counties refused to provide public help for black southerners, emphasizing permission to use $2,800 of leftover school buildings at all. African American economic advancement through indus- money from the initial distribution for children often learned in churches, lodge trial (vocational) education without six experimental rural schools. With a halls, and other private buildings. challenging racial segregation and the shared faith in the power of self-help, Booker T. Washington, principal of disenfranchisement of black voters. Booker T. Washington and Julius Ros- Tuskegee Institute, sought to change all Critics such as W.E.B. Du Bois and the enwald insisted on local contributions that with his rural school program. In National Association for the Advance- to match Rosenwald grants for these the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ment of Colored People called for a experimental schools, rather than full Washington preached a gospel of self direct challenge to segregation. Wash- public or philanthropic funding. They 2 PRESERVATION BOOKS believed that personal sacrifices of hard- earned cash, materials, and labor would strengthen African Americans’ commit- ment to their communities. This self-help requirement made rural African Ameri- cans the driving force behind the Ros- enwald program and the arbiters of its meaning for southern communities. This grassroots support was a critical ingredi- ent for the success of the Rosenwald school building program to come. The six original schools built in Alabama included Notasulga and Brownsville in Macon County, Loachapoka in Lee County, and Big Zion, Little Zion, and Madison Park in Montgomery County. Each received about $300 toward construction costs. Rosenwald’s next step was a $30,000 gift in 1914 for construction of 100 rural schools, followed by gifts for up to 200 more schools in 1916, each of which could obtain a maximum grant of $300. Rosenwald and Washington worked together to alleviate the problems of African American rural education until November 15, 1915, when Washington died. He was in New York when his final illness struck. He is reputed to have said, The Sweet Gum School in Macon County, Ala., followed Tuskegee University’s “I was born in the South, have lived all design No. 11 for a one-teacher school and featured a classroom for academic my life in the South, and expect to die in instruction, a smaller industrial classroom, a kitchen, library, and cloakrooms. the South.” He left New York for Tuske- Photo courtesy of Fisk University, Franklin Library, Special Collections gee, where he died shortly thereafter. Tributes and condolences came from all tor of the mechanical industries program Reflecting the Tuskegee-style curricu- over the country, including
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