By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Sonja Ingram, Preservation Virginia’s manager of Preservation field services, gave a presentation on Rosenwald Schools, which was sponsored by The Botetourt County Historical Society Inc., last Thursday at the Fincastle Library. The schools, which educated American Americans who lived in the South, were built between 1917 and 1932.
There were more than 5,000 Rosenwald Schools throughout the South, four of which were in Botetourt County. Located in Eagle Rock, Buchanan, Indian Rock, and the Hollins/Carvins area, none of the four schools are still standing today.
The schools were a joint effort between Julius Rosenwald, the part owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Institute.
“Julius Rosenwald visited some southern states and was upset by the conditions of the schools that African Americans were attending,” Ingram said. “This was a time when things were supposed to be separate but equal, but they certainly weren’t equal. The school buildings were substandard in most of the cases.”
At the Tuskegee Institute, Washington and his students created a book of designs so that every school would be similar. Due to the fact that there wasn’t electricity, Washington and his students designed the schools to optimize natural lighting. “They made it so that the light would come in and not cast shadows on the papers. They were very detailed,” Ingram said. “The paint had to be a certain color to reflect the light. So much thought went into the designs. They were built really well, which is probably why many of them are still standing.”
Ingram noted that the Rosenwald Fund didn’t fully fund the schools. Funding also came from citizens and localities.
“It was a successful program,” Ingram said. She added that the schools stretched 15 states, from Maryland to Texas
Preservation Virginia’s program on Rosenwald Schools was initiated in 2013 when the schools were included on a list of most endangered sites that it compiles.
To build out its program, staff from Preservation Virginia went around to every county throughout Virginia in order to gather information about the schools. In Botetourt County, staff members spoke with Judith Barnett and several individuals who attended the schools.
Fisk University was also an invaluable resource for Ingram and her colleagues. She explained that the university has a list of all of the Rosenwald Schools that were built, when they were built, how many teachers each school had, and the funding sources that were used to built them. The actual addresses of the schools were missing from the university’s files, Ingram noted. “Most of them were built in really rural areas, so there might not have been an address,” she said.
According to Ingram, there were roughly 380 Rosenwald Schools in Virginia. The majority of which were located throughout the eastern part of the state.
“It’s taken a lot of time, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Ingram said of the process of tracking down every Rosenwald School in Virginia. She likened the process to sleuthing. She said that she would often go into local stores and ask around to see if anyone could point her in the direction of where one of the old schools had been.
Every year Preservation Virginia holds workshops for individuals and organizations that work to preserve Rosenwald Schools. “We try to help people who need funding keep the schools maintained,” Ingram said.
In the future, Preservation Virginia has plans to fold its Rosenwald School program into its broader African American programming.
Founded in 1889, Preservation Virginia is a state-wide nonprofit organization. The organization is perhaps best known for owning and managing Historic Jamestowne through a public/private partnership with the National Park Service.
