A Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park would recognize an important legacy of philanthropy and social justice and be the first national park honoring a Jewish American.
Julius Rosenwald, the son of German Jewish immigrants, was a successful businessman who played a pivotal role in making Sears, Roebuck and Company a retail powerhouse of the early 20th century. Becoming rich beyond his wildest dreams, he used his wealth to provide greater opportunities for African Americans and other people in need.
Blog Post
He Built Schools to Fight Injustice, and I Want You to Know His Story
Why I am working to help establish a national park site to preserve Julius Rosenwald’s legacy — the first national park site that will honor a Jewish American.
See more ›Rosenwald partnered with African American communities across the South to help fund the construction of more than 5,300 schools and related buildings for children who otherwise would have had extremely limited or no access to public education. These Rosenwald schools provided the first permanent educational facilities for many black people in rural areas.
The buildings — many of them one- or two-room schoolhouses on country roads surrounded by fields and woods — were a source of pride and affection in their communities. The schools educated one-third of the African American children in the South before the legal end to segregation. Many of the students who graduated from Rosenwald schools — including visionaries such as Georgia Congressman John Lewis and poet Maya Angelou — helped advance the civil rights movement.
In 1917, Rosenwald created the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which made substantial contributions to improving African American life. The fund supported early NAACP legal cases that eventually led to the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case before the Supreme Court. Starting in 1928, the fund granted fellowships to talented African Americans in the arts and sciences. A number of fellows, including historian John Hope Franklin and psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, assisted Thurgood Marshall in preparing the second brief for the Brown v. Board case that led to the ultimate decision outlawing “separate but equal” education.
Rosenwald donated to numerous other worthy causes, playing a pivotal role in the creation of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and contributing to other Chicago-based charities. He and Jane Addams of Hull House worked together for over 20 years. He also provided the founding donation for Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
The two pillars of Rosenwald’s approach to philanthropy were the challenge grant and the “give while you live” philosophy. Both approaches are widely used today.
A Slideshow of Selected Rosenwald Schools
The Salem Rosenwald School in Arkansas.
© Alan Spears/NPCA
Durham’s Chapel School in Tennessee.
© Alan Spears/NPCA
The Prentiss Institute in Mississippi.
© Alan Spears/NPCA
The Cairo Rosenwald School in Tennessee.
© Alan Spears/NPCA
Walthall County Training School in Mississippi.
© Alan Spears/NPCA
The Russell School, a two-teacher school in pristine condition in Durham County, North Carolina.
© Dorothy Canter
The EJ Hayes Alumni Center (formerly Williamston Colored School) in Williamston, North Carolina, which originally served as a six-teacher school.
© Dorothy Canter
The Elmore County Black History Museum (formerly the six-teacher Elmore County Training School) in Wetumpka, Alabama
© Dorothy Canter
The San Domingo Rosenwald School, a four-teacher school in Mardela Springs, Maryland
© Don Stevenson
The Ridgeley School, originally a two-teacher school in Prince Georges County, Maryland
© Dorothy Canter
The Shady Grove School, a one-teacher school being restored in Gum Spring, Virginia
© Dorothy Canter
Per Rosenwald’s instructions, the fund he established ceased to exist in 1948, 16 years after his death. As a result, relatively few people know Rosenwald’s story today, yet many of the buildings he helped create continue to serve their communities. A Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park would include a selection of the surviving schools and a visitor center in Chicago to interpret his overall legacy.
Press Release
Legislation Introduced to Establish the First National Park Site to Honor a Jewish American and Preserve Julius Rosenwald’s Legacy
Julius Rosenwald’s legacy and the thousands of schoolhouses he helped construct are an important part of our country’s history, and must never be forgotten.
See more ›NPCA is partnering with the Rosenwald Park Campaign and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to establish a national historical park. Together, NPCA and its allies are supporting legislation introduced in the U.S. House and Senate that would authorize the National Park Service conduct a special resource study, the first step in creating such a park.
With NPCA’s support, the Rosenwald Park Campaign funded a historic context inventory and analysis to aid the National Park Service in assessing structures that might qualify for inclusion in a historical park. The report concluded that Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools are of national historic significance and that a park commemorating his legacy would be an important enhancement to the National Park System. State historic preservation officers in 14 states recommended 55 Rosenwald Schools and one teacher home to consider for possible inclusion in the ultimate park.
Julius Rosenwald, and the people in whom he invested, made a powerful contribution to our country. This legacy of generosity and social justice must be preserved and interpreted by the people best equipped to tell the story: our national park rangers.
For more information, visit the Rosenwald Park Campaign.
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