Conceived in the 1910s by black educator Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Institute staff, the Rosenwald program represented a massive effort to improve black rural schooling in the South through public-private partnership. The name came from philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company. Rosenwald offered matching grants to rural communities interested in building black schools.

In the short run, the Rosenwald Fund had an impressive effect. By the early 1930s thousands of old shanty schoolhouses had been replaced with new, larger structures constructed from modern standardized plans. Over 5,300 Rosenwald buildings blanketed fifteen southern states. More were erected in North Carolina than in any other state. Through a combination of active leadership in the state Department of Public Instruction and enthusiastic fundraising by blacks at the grass-roots level, North Carolina constructed 800+ Rosenwald buildings

This event will take place in the Leon & Sandra Levine Social Hall. You may also attend via Zoom: 

https://templeisraelnc-org.zoom.us/j/88115990552?pwd=NzU2elRHelJEMFptSUN4SEdjS1hDQT09

Meeting ID: 881 1599 0552
Passcode: 802860

One tap mobile

+16465588656,,88115990552# US (New York)

* Tuesday, March 15, 2 p.m.
A follow-up to this program will be a field trip to the Charlotte Museum of History for a guided tour of its Rosenwald School exhibit. TISC has reserved an LJCC van to take up to 14 people who do not wish to drive to the museum. 

Reservations (by Wednesday, March 9) are needed for this trup, both for the van and the tour. Please contact Ali Kavadlo at alibmates@gmail.com to make a reservation. The van will leave Temple Israel at 1 p.m. and return at 4 p.m. For those who would like to drive themselves, they can follow the van to the museum or drive directly to the museum. The address is 3500 Shamrock Dr, Charlotte.

• The cost of the tour is $8.00 per person
• The cost for the van is $10.00 per person.