Rosenwald Schools

As the heat of August intensifies, I am turning away from tense political issues to write about a heart-warming story that only recently came to my attention. Rosenwald Schools have been researched, documented, reported in print, broadcast and video, yet their story is not widely known.

Rosenwald Schools are so-named in recognition of the man, Julius Rosenwald, who funded a foundation to build schools for African American children whose education received a fraction of the government funding provided to white-only schools throughout the South. According to a Smithsonian Magazine article , “Rosenwald was a humble philanthropist who avoided publicity surrounding his efforts; very few of the schools built under the program bear his name.” Nearly 5,000 schools were built across 15 states between 1917 and 1932 with funds from Rosenwald equivalent to $440 million in today’s dollars.

Julius Rosenwald, a part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, was introduced by a mutual friend to African American educator and leader Booker T. Washington. The two shared a belief that education was key to African Americans rising from poverty. The one-, two-, and three-teacher schools exclusively served over 700,000 students over four decades. Following the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional, Rosenwald schools consolidated with white schools, continuing to use Rosenwald buildings in some towns. About 500 Rosenwald School buildings remain standing.

An economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Dan Aaronson, documented a three-year education gap in the rural South between black and white students following the First World War. By 1941 that gap had narrowed to one year. With data collected from Social Security, Census, World War II enlistments and other sources, Aaronson verified the advantages Rosenwald Schools gave their students.

Students who went to Rosenwald schools had higher IQ scores than kids who didn’t. They made more money later in life. They were more likely to travel to the North as part of the Great Migration. They lived a little bit longer. The women delayed marriage and had fewer kids. And crime rates in the area of the schools went down.

Rosenwald Schools alumni include civil rights activist Medgar Evers, poet Maya Angelou, and Congressman John Lewis. Two graduates, Mamie and Kenneth Clark, contributed research critical to the Brown vs Board of Education decision, conducted under a Rosenwald Fellowship. How fitting that Rosenwald graduates contributed to the end of segregated schools.