New life for an old school
When renovations are complete, the Rosenwald School in St. George will serve as a community center, history museum and venue for cultural programs.
August is back-to-school time, a reminder that not so long ago, many kids in South Carolina didn’t have much of a school to go back to. There are still those who remember the days when children living in rural parts of the state attended school for just three months a year in decaying log cabins and shanties.
At a time in the segregated South when state support for educating African-American students was woefully inadequate, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, helped fund a remarkable idea. He partnered with civil rights leader Booker T. Washington to establish the Rosenwald Fund, which contributed over $4 million in matching funds to construct more than 5,000 schools, teachers’ homes and vocational shops across the South.
Local communities came together and raised their share of the money, creating a sense of local pride and ownership. Through these efforts, thousands of dilapidated rural schools were replaced with well-designed and well-constructed buildings, complete with walls of large windows to maximize sunlight in areas where there was no electricity.
Rosenwald Schools served as the heart of rural communities. The buildings were gathering places for agricultural and homemakers’ clubs, as well as sites for celebrations, plays, fundraisers and church services. Sadly, many of these historic structures have been neglected and forgotten. Of the 500 Rosenwald Schools built in South Carolina, just 36 remain.
In the town of St. George, a time-weathered Rosenwald School that was abandoned more than 50 years ago, is well on its way to being saved, thanks to efforts of local legislators like Rep. Patsy Knight and Sen. John Matthews, and a dedicated alumni group.
Douglas Reeves, board chairman of Edisto Electric Cooperative in Bamberg, is one of the community leaders shepherding this effort. He serves alongside other members of the preservation group that meets regularly to undertake the task of restoring the school.
“I’m so excited when I get home from our meetings,” says Reeves. “This school was something they once had and thought they’d lost. Now they want to preserve something important from when they were coming up and show it to their kids and grandkids.”
The old school, which graduated its last class in 1954, will become a living artifact that families can visit and explore. The restored building will serve as a community center with two classrooms set up as a history museum of African-American education. As a venue for cultural programs, social functions and even a branch of EdVenture Children’s Museum, the once blighted and abandoned building will be filled with children’s voices once more.
The legacy of Julius Rosenwald is long-lasting and far-reaching. It’s estimated that over one-third of African-American children in the first half of the last century attended one of the Rosenwald Schools, including nationally known figures like Maya Angelou and Rep. John Lewis.
One of South Carolina’s most celebrated and best-selling authors, Dori Sanders, was the daughter of a Rosenwald school principal in York County. Like many in the rural South, Sanders’ childhood home had no electricity and relied on kerosene for light. But she often talks about the influence of that school, attributing her love of books to her time there.
“I grew up reading,” she says, explaining that her father encouraged his children and his students to read, no matter their life circumstances.
Julius Rosenwald’s philosophy was “give while you live,” and the impact of his giving has continued long after his death. He not only changed the landscape of education with the schools he helped fund, he left a legacy inspiring today’s community leaders to give of themselves as well.
___
Get More
Discover more Rosenwald Schools with The Green Book of South Carolina (greenbookofsc.com), the online travel guide to African-American cultural sites across the state.