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Tanuki

(14,893 posts)
Sun Mar 19, 2023, 03:28 PM Mar 2023

History of Rosenwald Schools--educating Black children in the South

Two exhibits this year at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville
https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/museum-explores-the-histories-and-legacies-of-rosenwald-schools-in-two-upcoming-exhibitions-in-2023?locale=en_us

"In the early 20th century, a historic collaboration led to the building of nearly 5,000 public schools in the Southeastern United States to improve education opportunities for African American students. In 2023, the Tennessee State Museum will focus on sharing the histories and legacies of what were known as Rosenwald schools, with two temporary exhibitions.

The first show, a travelling photography exhibit by Andrew Feiler, titled A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America, will run from February 24, 2023 – May 21, 2023.
...
"Over the span of 25 years, the building of these schools helped change the lives of thousands of African American children,” said Ashley Howell, executive director of the Tennessee State Museum. “This greatly affected Black education and informs Black history in the South. The exhibitions are a wonderful opportunity to share these stories – many of them lesser known – on the power and importance of community, collaboration, and philanthropy.”
....
Born to Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and turn it into the world’s largest retailer. Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington became the founding principal of the Tuskegee Institute. Together, the two men launched a program to partner with Black communities to build public schools for African American children. During the time, African American students faced obstacles posed by racial segregation, violence, and discrimination."...(more)

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History of Rosenwald Schools--educating Black children in the South (Original Post) Tanuki Mar 2023 OP
Something more I didn't learn about in school. n/t wryter2000 Mar 2023 #1
More about the Rosenwald schools, whose students included John Lewis, Tanuki Mar 2023 #2

Tanuki

(14,893 posts)
2. More about the Rosenwald schools, whose students included John Lewis,
Sun Mar 19, 2023, 05:22 PM
Mar 2023

Medgar Evers, Maya Angelou, and members of the Little Rock Nine:


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-rosenwald-schools-shaped-legacy-generation-black-leaders-180977340/

..."That the schools’ history is not more widely known is in large part due to the program’s benefactor. Rosenwald was a humble philanthropist who avoided publicity surrounding his efforts; very few of the schools built under the program bear his name. His beliefs about the philanthropic distribution of wealth in one’s own lifetime contributed to the anonymity, as his estate dictated that all funds supporting the schools were to be distributed within 25 years of his death. Many of the former students Feiler met with were unaware of the scope of the program, or that other Rosenwald Schools existed outside of their county, until restoration efforts gained national attention.

As Feiler outlines in the book, Rosenwald and Washington were introduced by mutual friends, and Washington lobbied Rosenwald to join the board of directors at Tuskegee Institute, the Alabama university for African Americans he co-founded. They began a lengthy correspondence about how they might collaborate further and soon focused on schools for black children.

Washington knew education was key to black Americans rising from generations of oppression. His memoir, Up From Slavery, inspired many, including Julius Rosenwald, who was impressed with Washington’s zeal for education as it aligned so closely with his own beliefs.

In the Jim Crow South, institutionalized segregation pushed rural black students into poor public schools. Municipal education expenditures were a small fraction of monies spent on educating similarly situated white children. In North Carolina alone, the state only spent $2.30 per black student was spent in 1915 compared to nearly $7.40 per white student and nearly $30 per student nationally, according to research by Tom Hanchett, a Rosenwald Schools scholar and community historian.

“Washington saw group effort as key to real change in America,” says Hanchett. “Education is one way to harness powerful group effort. If everyone can read and write, they can work together in a way they could not previously. The schools themselves were ways to bring not just children together but entire communities that were geographically dispersed.”...(more)

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