Links launch effort to find Rosenwald school sites
By LEE HENDREN, T&D Staff Writer Monday, October 16, 2006For generations of African-Americans in the South, Rosenwald schools were the only way to get a formal, public education.
Now their descendants are banding together to identify, restore and preserve the remaining structures.
“If we don’t document our history for future generations, a lot of people won’t know what really happened in the past,” Dr. Barbara Williams Jenkins says.
Jenkins, a retired librarian, is a member of the Orangeburg Chapter of The Links Inc., an international educational, civic and cultural organization.
The chapter announced last week it is taking on the task of finding all of the Rosenwald schools in Orangeburg County and working with the community to place a state historical marker on each site.
“A lot of the schools, we don’t know the location and the history,” said Leah E. Brown, African-American programs coordinator with the S.C. Department of Archives and History.
Once the sites are identified, “we can preserve those that can be preserved and mark those that are lost,” said Jannie Harriot, chair of the S.C. African-American Heritage Commission.
“This initiative may set the standard for others across the state,” said Tracy Hayes, Rosenwald Initiative Program assistant with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Southern Office in Charleston.
The National Trust, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, launched its Rosenwald Schools Initiative in 2002.
Now, more than 2,000 people across the South are working to raise awareness of the schools, aid in their documentation and increase participation in and support for their preservation and use, Hayes said.
The National Trust has only $9,000 for the Rosenwald Schools Initiative in South Carolina.
On Nov. 14, the National Trust will ask the State Budget and Control Board for $120,000 to hold a workshop to train volunteers who will then conduct a survey of Rosenwald structures – schools, “teacherages” and industrial shops – across the state.
State Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation in the General Assembly in January to provide money “for restoration and preservation of these buildings because of their historical significance.”
“You’ve got to understand the historical setting for all of this,” he said. “Booker T. Washington, the principal of Tuskegee Institute, approached Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck & Co.”
Washington told Rosenwald that by providing money to build schools, he could help African-Americans become self-sufficient, Govan said.
According to the newly published South Carolina Encyclopedia, “Between 1913 and 1932, 5,357 schools, shops and teachers’ homes were built in 15 states through contributions from Rosenwald.”
All told, Rosenwald provided 16.5 percent of the cost of the buildings. Black individuals and groups contributed 19 percent, whites, 4.5 percent. State and local governments provided 60 percent.
About 500 of those structures were built throughout South Carolina, and more than 74,000 black students attended classes in them.
“There was really no other place for African-Americans to go to school,” Govan said. “Those schools served a valuable purpose, filling an important void.”
Many former Rosenwald students went on to become the first generation in their family to attend college, Govan said. Many of them attended S.C. State or Claflin in Orangeburg or Voorhees College in Denmark.
Govan teamed up with state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, to obtain a $25,000 grant for restoration and preservation of the Rosenwald teachers’ quarters in the Great Branch Community on S.C. 4, west of Orangeburg.
Only eight teacherages were built in South Carolina.
“We’re fortunate that, in Orangeburg County, we have a premier site,” Govan said, “but it’s a race against time to get hold of them and preserve them before they’re lost forever.”
The Great Branch school is one of the Rosenwald buildings that has been lost forever. Another is the original Felton School that stood next to Dukes Gymnasium on the S.C. State campus in Orangeburg.
“It was demolished for a parking lot,” Jenkins recalled. The former Felton Teacherage still stands, however.
Another lost building was the Sterling School, named for a Northern missionary. It stood near Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Orangeburg. It was a forerunner of the Dunton School, which was lost to fire.
Many of the Rosenwald schools, including the one in Elloree, took the name “training school.”
In the coming months, members of the Orangeburg Chapter of The Links intend to:
n Appeal to the public for information on Rosenwald schools, including photos, documents and oral histories by faculty members, students and their descendants.
n Hold an orientation session to teach volunteers how to gather, compile and store information on the schools.
n Conduct field work at identified or likely sites of Rosenwald schools.
People who would like to share information on Rosenwald schools in Orangeburg County, or want more information about the chapter’s project, can call 803-534-2286, 803-536-8808, 803-536-6367 or 803-435-2406.
To share information on Rosenwald schools in any S.C. county, contact Leah Brown at 803-896-8121 or brownl@scdah.state.sc.us.
Online resources
l National Trust: www.nthp.org; www.rosenwaldschools.com.
l S.C. Department of Archives and History: www.state.sc.us/scdah.
l S.C. Rosenwald school buildings database: www.state.sc.us/scdah/afamer/rosenintro.htm.
l Fisk University Special Collections Library: www.fisk.edu.
l Museum of the New South: www.rosenwaldplans.org.
l Old S.C. school photos (white and black): www.archivesindex.sc.gov/search/default.asp. Under “Database to Search,” select “School Insurance Photographs, 1935-1952.”
n T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
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