The Jefferson Jacob School was a Kentucky-based Rosenwald school built in 1917. The Filson Historical Society preserves a 1920s photograph depicting students and teachers in front of the building. (Photo courtesy Virginia Museum of History & Culture)
Their partnership is thoroughly and powerfully American. Booker T. Washington, born into slavery, founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 in Alabama. He sought to improve the educational prospects for African Americans. Julius Rosenwald, a son of Jewish immigrants from Springfield, Illinois, rose to direct the growth of the Sears, Roebuck and Co., and his philanthropy supported vocational and technical education.
They were joined together in 1912 after Rosenwald was appointed to the institute’s board, leading to his working with Washington and funding schools for Black youths across the Jim Crow South. By 1937, the Rosenwald schools program had built schools, shops and teacher’s homes across 15 Southern states. Following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, many of the Rosenwald schools closed. Some new schools included the older buildings in their design, while others received adaptation for different purposes. Many were razed.
A photographic tribute to the educational institutions, “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America,” runs May 25 to April 20, 2025, at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The duotone images displayed within the exhibition also appear in the 2021 book by Andrew Feiler for which the show is named. He traveled 25,000 miles to photograph 105 of the remaining Rosenwald schools.
Among the showcase’s 26 photographs selected by Feiler are four locations in Virginia: Saint Paul’s Chapel School, Brunswick County; Nansemond County Training School; Denbigh School, Warwick County; and Farmville Training School, Prince Edward County. Among the images are interior and exterior shots, schools that have been restored, and others in disrepair, as well as portraits of individuals with connections to the educational institutions such as Elroy and Sophia Williams. Sophia’s grandparents, who were former slaves, obtained and then donated land for the construction of a Rosenwald school. Rosenwald funding in Virginia constructed 382 schools and auxiliary buildings. The presentation includes a list of the structures and a collage of historical and contemporary images of the schools across the commonwealth.
Preservation Virginia placed Virginia’s Rosenwald schools on its 2013 Most Endangered Historic Places list to raise awareness about their existence. In 2019, the group, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, completed a two-year survey of the state’s Rosenwald schools. An accounting of that endeavor can be read at preservationvirginia.org, and a 2018 video on YouTube, “Virginia Rosenwald School Network Meeting.”
Feiler is scheduled to speak at the VMHC this month, and he’ll also host a lecture and book signing at the museum on Sept. 5. Visit virginiahistory.org for more information.
Entrance into “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America” is included with admission to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture ($8 to $12).
