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Thousands of modest schoolhouses erected across the segregated South gave Black children access to education while helping lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.
Known as Rosenwald Schools, the buildings emerged from a partnership between Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Their program brought Black communities and white school boards together to construct 4,978 schools across 15 Southern and border states from 1912 to 1937.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Black children faced severe educational barriers. Many Southern states provided little or no funding for their education, contributing to a persistent achievement gap between Black and white students.
Photographer and author Andrew Feiler said that gap narrowed sharply between World War I and World War II, with Rosenwald Schools serving as the single largest force behind the improvement.
Feiler’s photographs of surviving schools are scheduled to be exhibited at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 28 through the end of the year.
Hope inside small schoolhouses
Most Rosenwald Schools had between one and four teachers. Because public school systems did not provide bus service to Black students, the buildings generally served children who lived close enough to walk. That necessity helped keep the schools small and closely connected to their surrounding communities.
Fairfax County public historian Jeff Clark described the program as “game changing,” offering hope to children and families who had few educational opportunities.
Before Rosenwald Schools arrived in Fairfax County, Black students generally could not continue beyond seventh grade unless their families could pay tuition in Washington, D.C., or use the address of a relative living there, Clark said.
Four Rosenwald Schools were constructed in what was then a largely rural Fairfax County. One stood in Fairfax City near what is now George Mason University. The Guilford school served Tysons Corner, while another was built during the 1930s in the Oak Grove community near the Loudoun County line.
The Seminary Rosenwald School in Alexandria was eventually replaced by T.C. Williams High School, now called Alexandria City High School.
Clark said the schools gave Black communities hope at a time when the county was directing its resources toward new buildings for white children in places such as Annandale and McLean.
Designs ahead of their time
Plans developed at the Tuskegee Institute offered blueprints for schools of different sizes and included careful guidance about where each building should sit.
The designs emphasized natural light, an idea that Fairfax County Public Schools renewed its focus on roughly a century later. Tuskegee’s planners provided instructions for matching a building to its lot and positioning it to bring as much daylight as possible into classrooms.
Maryland ultimately had more than 150 Rosenwald Schools, while Virginia had over 380. Only about 500 of the buildings remain standing nationwide.
Some survivors have been adapted for municipal or school-system use. Others have been restored as museums, including the Ridgeley School in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
A foundation for civil rights
Rosenwald Schools educated many people who later became central figures in the Civil Rights Movement and American culture, including activist Medgar Evers, author Maya Angelou and Georgia congressman John Lewis.
Feiler said the schools helped establish the educational and economic foundation that allowed the movement to gain momentum when it did.
He also sees a broader lesson in the partnership behind them. Rosenwald, a white Jewish businessman from the North, and Washington, a Black Christian educator from the South, crossed divisions of race, religion and region in 1912, during the deeply segregated Jim Crow era.
Their collaboration, Feiler said, demonstrates how individual action can produce lasting national change.