"The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina" and "The Rosenwald Schools of South Carolina"
FAIN: TT-271564-20
Longleaf Productions (Greensboro, NC 27410-4509)
Tom Lassiter (Project Director: January 2020 to present)
Production of two thirty-minute documentaries about Rosenwald Schools in North Carolina and South Carolina.
These two short films are the first in a planned series covering each of the 15 states with Rosenwald Schools. Rosenwald Schools were the result of the friendship and collaboration between the famed educator Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist and president of Sears Roebuck. Their school construction scheme built nearly 5,000 schools across the South, circumventing Jim Crow's efforts to deny education to black youth. How was it that North and South Carolina built more Rosenwald Schools than any other states? And why do so few survive in South Carolina? These films will explore the unique histories of Rosenwald Schools in the Carolinas. The films will celebrate the schools' roles in their communities through the eyes of alumni, teachers,scholars, and others working to preserve this important chapter in American history.
Media Coverage
"Rosenwald Schools: Out of prejudice came triumph in NC" (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jim Jenkins
Publication: The (Raleigh) News & Observer
Date: 2/22/2023
Abstract: Retired editor, editorial writer and columnist Jim Jenkins provided background on the Rosenwald School program and a preview of the documentary prior to a Feb. 23 screening and panel discussion at the N.C. Museum of History. The screening was attended by approximately 200 persons. On the panel with the filmmakers were Earl Ijames, curator of African American and Agricultural History at the museum; Ben Stewart, an alumnus of a Rosenwald School in Warren County, N.C.; and Dr. Arwin Smallwood, interim vice chancellor for undergraduate education and former head of the department of history and political science, North Carolina A&T State University.
Similar screenings and panel discussions were held Feb. 4 at the High Point Museum; Feb. 18 at Elizabeth City State University; Feb. 21 at the Shepard-Pruden Library, Edenton, N.C.; and Feb. 24 at the Charlotte Museum of History.
"Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity" aired on the PBS NC network several times in February 2023.
URL: https://tinyurl.com/2pcacs5d
“Unlocking Doors of Opportunity” – North Carolina’s Rosenwald Schools Lecture (Media Coverage)
Author(s): North Carolina Museum of History
Publication: YouTube post by North Carolina Museum of History
Date: 2/18/2023
Abstract: Introduction by Earl Ijames, curator of African American and Agricultural History, prior to screening the film at the North Carolina Museum of History on Feb. 16, 2023. After the screening before an audience of approximately 200, a panel discussion took place featuring Dr. Arwin Smallwood of North Carolina A&T State University, Rosenwald School alumnus Ben Stewart, and the filmmakers.
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqMt9GQiXp8
Associated Products
Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity / The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity / The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina
Writer: Tom Lassiter
Director: Jere Snyder
Producer: Tom Lassiter
Abstract: The rise of Jim Crow in the late 19th century caused public school spending for African American students in the rural South to all but dry up. Rosenwald Schools, the shorthand name for a program put forward by the educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, offered a way for communities to build the schools they wanted and needed. Rosenwald Schools took root in 15 states, with the program eventually helping to build nearly 5,000 schoolhouses. The program was especially successful in North Carolina, which constructed nearly 800 schools, the most of any state. One reason for the program's success was dynamic leadership – Black and White, male and female – who shared the goal of creating better schools for Black communities, yet who operated largely within society's conventions of that era. North Carolina's Rosenwald Schools remind us of a time when community people with few resources were united by a vision for a better future. They invested in that future and struggled to achieve it. The story of Rosenwald Schools informs today's younger generations about an era that has been missing from history books. It also has valuable lessons about community building and cooperation, which are sorely needed in these fractious times.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
http://vimeo.com/691199838/ee2bc95ee8Primary URL Description: "Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity / The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina" -- a 30-minute documentary for general audiences. Historians and alumni share the story of how North Carolinians came to build more Rosenwald Schools for African Americans than any other state.
Access Model: Documentary has been offered to PBS-NC to air on the statewide network. Program is available online to the public and educators. Plans are to screen the film in community forum settings, pending funding. All access is free to the public.
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
The Bridge That Brought Us Through / The Rosenwald Schools of South Carolina (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: The Bridge That Brought Us Through / The Rosenwald Schools of South Carolina
Writer: Tom Lassiter
Director: Jere Snyder
Producer: Tom Lassiter
Abstract: South Carolina built more than 500 so-called Rosenwald Schools under the program devised by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald. This unique program was responsible for providing elementary schools for an estimated 40 percent of South Carolina's African American children, according to a researcher at Orangeburg State University. Virtually all of them lived in rural areas. As in other states, the Rosenwald Schools became the centers of strong, supportive communities that nurtured Black youth, helping to prepare them for high school and higher education. Above all, supportive communities and the schools' caring teachers prepared the students for life's challenges in the Jim Crow era.
The prospect of integrating the state's public schools in the early 1950s, at the behest of the federal government, led to swift action by the state's elected White officials to build new, "equal" schools for African American students. Though this plan did indeed build scores of schools, it did not prevent eventual integration.
In the final analysis, the scheme to build "equalization schools" helped erase many Rosenwald Schools from the landscape. This makes the surviving schools all the more important as physical reminders and interpretive sites for an almost-forgotten chapter of South Carolina history.
Rosenwald Schools were a step toward correcting the inequalities in public education created by Jim Crow policies.
One of the many ironies in this story is that South Carolina voters, in the Reconstruction Era, passed a remarkably progressive state constitution that guaranteed free education for all citizens, Black and White. The person who advocated most for this right was Robert Smalls. Smalls was a previously enslaved individual who earned notoriety in 1862 for stealing an armed Confederate vessel under cover of darkness in Charleston Harbor and delivering it to Union ships offshore. Smalls remained a proponent for education all his life.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://vimeo.com/786070715Primary URL Description: "The Bridge That Brought Us Through / The Rosenwald Schools of South Carolina" is a 36-minute documentary examining the role of nearly 500 schoolhouses built for African American students in the early years of the 20th century.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Video