Rosenwald Schools
Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Rosenwald Schools. Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington established fund in 1912 to provide grants to African American communities to improve education. In N.C. the fund assisted with 817 projects in 93 counties. The first one was Warren Grove School, a two-teacher floor plan, completed on Oct. 8, 1915, five miles N.E
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
In 1912, businessman Julius Rosenwald and educator Booker T. Washington created a fund that provided matching grants to help African American communities build better schools across the segregated South. In North Carolina alone the fund aided 817 projects in 93 counties, beginning with the two-teacher Warren Grove School, completed in October 1915 about five miles northeast. Local Black families raised much of the money and labor themselves.
Why it matters
The Rosenwald program built thousands of schools that gave a generation of African American children an education the Jim Crow states otherwise denied them.
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Related people
- · Julius Rosenwald
- · Booker T. Washington
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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