Brown Bag Program ~ Rosenwald Schools: A Benchmark in the History of Black Education

In Notasulga, Alabama, a few miles from Tuskegee, one of the earliest Rosenwald schools is still standing, but in dilapidated condition. Community members are trying to place the school, built in 1914, on the National Register of Historic Places. (courtesy of Diane Granat)

Julius Rosenwald, co-owner and president of the Sears department stores, funded the Rosenwald Schools for the education of rural African-American children living in the early twentieth-century south. Booker T. Washington approached him about spending some of the money Rosenwald donated to Tuskegee Institute to construct six small schools in rural Alabama. When these schools were opened, Rosenwald was so pleased with the results that he set up the Julius Rosenwald Fund to build more African-American schools throughout the south.

Historian and preservationist Dorothy Walker will discuss the history of these schools and today's efforts to save the few surviving buildings. Wednesday, April 30, noon.

Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Programs. You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Wednesdays at noon in the Arrington Auditorium located on the 3rd floor of the Linn-Hinley Research Library, 2100 Park Place.