To establish a school system encompassing all of these tenets, he needed a generous donor who believed in his ambitious vision.įortunately, a fundraiser thrown in Chicago, Illinois in 1911 honoring the Tuskegee Institute allowed Washington to cross paths with Julius Rosenwald, the wealthy clothier who served as president of the Sears-Roebuck company from 1908 to 1922. He also believed that technical and vocational education were vital in enabling black Americans to achieve the prosperity and economic foothold necessary to challenge white supremacy. Washington firmly believed that the best way to overcome these challenges and establish rural segregated schools was through both public and private sources of funding that relied on “black-white cooperation.” He was an ardent proponent in the idea of “self-help,” stating that he wished to “encourage southern communities to increase support for black education” by investing in and building their schools themselves. These rundown buildings, often lacking proper ventilation, heating, and sanitation, made long-term schooling impossible, and did little to inspire black communities to attend school, leaving them little hope for improving their circumstances. This left many black communities without the power to properly fund the construction of segregated schools, and those few that did exist were woefully inadequate. As Reconstruction ended and southern black politicians were largely forced out of power, white politicians, who viewed the formal education of black children as a challenge to the social order, diverted tax revenue that had been dedicated to schools for black children to white communities. Although some progress had been made during the Reconstruction era with regard to funding and constructing segregated schools in northern urban communities, those in the rural south faced an uphill battle. Washington envisioned a school building program that would serve as both a solution to the lack of formal schooling available to black communities in the south, as well as a challenge to the institution of white supremacy that made pursuing education difficult. The Rosenwald Schools were the brainchild of the famed educator, activist, and president of the Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. The Longstreet School and other Rosenwald Schools that remain standing today are now preserved on the National Register for Historic Places (NRHP), and viewable in the RG 79 Program Records series ( NAID 20812721). ![]() Considered one of the most ambitious American school building projects ever undertaken, it was, more importantly, one of the most significant steps in achieving formal education for black Americans before desegregation. It is a Rosenwald School, one of thousands built from 1913 through 1932 for black rural communities in the southern United States. Despite its perfectly ordinary and unassuming appearance, this building represented something revolutionary. ![]() Pictured above is the Longstreet School, a small, quaint structure sitting quietly off Louisiana Route 5 in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. Today’s post was written by Alicia Henneberry, Archives Specialist at the National Archives at College Park, MD The Longstreet Rosenwald School, circa 2009 ( NAID 73973387)
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