North Carolina once had about 800 Rosenwald schools. These schools, made possible by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears & Co., taught African American children in the early 1900s, when public schools in the South were segregated and poorly funded.[1] However, today these schools are little known to the public.
In 1915, North Carolina’s first Rosenwald school was completed in Chowan County, North Carolina. Named the Warren Grove School, the school was part of a larger initiative led by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald.[2]
Julius Rosenwald was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1862. He moved to Chicago at the age of 17 and in 1895 he invested $37,500 in Sears & Co. He then helped it grow into one of the largest retail stores in the mid-20th century. He became its president in 1908. Soon after, he began his philanthropic career, largely inspired by his rabbi, Emil Hirsch.[3]
While Rosenwald provided funding, Booker T. Washington was the facilitator. Washington’s book Up From Slavery inspired Rosenwald’s charitable support toward African Americans. The two met in 1911. Washington, the first president of what is now Tuskegee University, explained to Rosenwald the value of elementary education to African Americans in the South. In 1912, when Rosenwald turned 50, he granted Washington $25,000, primarily for colleges and academies. Washington was allowed to use a small amount for rural elementary schools near Tuskegee. That was the start of the Rosenwald schools. Each community was required to raise its funds to at least match the gift.[4]
Rosenwald required this gift matching with the goal of creating a pattern of lasting cooperation in many of these communities. Typically, the gift only provided enough to cover about 15–20% of a school’s building costs. This meant that the community raised the remainder of the necessary funds and acquired the land. The Warren Grove School cost $1,622. To raise the necessary funds the African American community raised $486, the white community and school system contributed $836, and Rosenwald contributed $300. However, typically, fundraising relied heavily on African Americans and land came from a gift from the member of the white community.[5]
The Rosenwald schools had many positive impacts in North Carolina and throughout the South. From 1900 to 1950 the illiteracy rate in North Carolina dropped from 30.1% to 5.5%.[6] Furthermore, the schools employed about 3,538 teachers and taught about 114,210 students.[7] The schools also had some notable alumni, including Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, and John Lewis. Angelou, the famous civil rights activist, author, and Wake Forest University professor, attended a Rosenwald school in Arkansas when she was eight.[8] Singer-songwriter Simone attended a Rosenwald school in North Carolina, and former U.S. Congressman Lewis attended one in Alabama.[9]
However, one key flaw of the Rosenwald schools was that they were only able to teach up to the eighth grade. With this eighth grade education, these schools also taught “industrial” classes in home economics and farming. This meant that African Americans gained access to an elementary education, but it did not allow most to move beyond being good farmers. This was because many of these schools relied heavily on white appropriations and therefore, had to respect their interests. One of these interests appeared to be the desire to keep African Americans on the farm by limiting their education to eighth grade.[10]
In 1932, Rosenwald Fund officials concluded that the route of cooperation and conciliation did not meet the goal of deep social change they had originally anticipated. This finding ended the Rosenwald schoolhouse grants. However, the already-built schools continued to educate African American children.[11]
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools violated the 14th amendment. This ruling made Rosenwald schools obsolete; however, the Rosenwald Fund’s alumni helped bring about the decision. In addition to the Rosenwald schools, the fund supported the Rosenwald Fellowship program. This program provided financial assistance for further education to people like Pauli Murray, civil rights activist and Episcopal priest. Murray, who grew up in Durham, N.C., graduated valedictorian of her class at Howard University Law School in 1944 and continued her legal studies at University of California at Berkeley thanks to a Rosenwald fellowship. After this she wrote States’ Laws on Race and Color, which Thurgood Marshall drew on in arguing Brown v. Board of Education.[12]
Today the surviving Rosenwald schools stand as a testament to African Americans’ pursuit for education.[13] Not many of the more than 800 schools that existed in North Carolina remain today. Community initiatives and nonprofits have taken it upon themselves to conserve and restore these schools to ensure that North Carolinians remember an important part of their history.[14]