The Alabama Experience; How Firm a Foundation

it's been fb or

an anchor for our foundation hear all these silent and downs and the desire to be successful and still in our times you can't if you try you incur to try before schooling of any kind much less a real schoolhouse was virtually unknown to black children in the early nineteen hundreds as america's greatest ancient technology

industry ten million of its citizens exist in slow motion who had been freed from slavery by the civil war chest thirty five years earlier for those people however freedom in alabama there were mostly sharecroppers and tenant farmers with little or no education they live in squalor in the white bosses land planted picked his crops obeyed his orders and have little prospect of ever bettering their lives their children play with hopelessness chop beings plough straight that was more important than learning to rewrite school english for three or four months to less than half the time allotted for white children who are on campus like the children have no real school classroom but it really was a church charity or watch or if you will they're poorly trained teachers work at least ten dollars online

records reflect the value white society placed on black education in nineteen twelve wilcox county in alabama's black belt spent thirty seven cents per capita to educate black children it's been seventeen dollars on each white chalk the neighbor boy this smart for white folks expect too much of him if they think he can earn as much in three months of school as their boys can and eight about the only hope for improving the blacks condition in alabama was at tuskegee institute the successful training school located in the black belt near montgomery in particular pope was in the person of booker t washington the renowned educator who had opened tuskegee on july fourth nineteen eighty one he was so adept at getting money from northern philanthropist but the school's reputation grew rapidly washington was tuskegee is principal and the guiding hand to teach blacks that they could gain dignity an opportunity by

learning a useful trait tuskegee talk them both academics and trains and in nineteen hundred at one thousand two hundred thirty one students enroll early this century in chicago a place for him to most blacks are far away from alabama a man was coming to power at the nation's best known retailer julius rosenwald became president of sears roebuck and company in nineteen oh no millions of americans welcome to the sears catalog and their homes with its pages of tempting merchandise rosenwald department published that have a lot to cover someone who as a boy had a church organ for ten cents on a sunday in springfield illinois vaulted to fame and fortune and catalog sales in the beginning either booker washington or julius rosenwald knew of each other yet as it's directed by a providential hand their paths would converge and change the course of like education and america it happened in nineteen eleven when washington was raising money in chicago that rosenwald celebrity and building

ymca is for blacks was well known washington so the executive on the needs of black children that october rosenwald visited the city and for the first time seeing washington's campus praised the educator as doing the greatest work of any man in america the pathetic educational conditions for black children touched rosenwald so deeply that he decided to make this cause this chief philanthropy within months he joined the tuskegee porter state became a major supporter and he and washington collaborated in a bold experiment to build some modest schoolhouse for the children who live near tuscany i will give you as much money as you want to build as many schools as you please for colored people in the south i will put in my share mr rosenwald was anything but a sentimental it's it was a fortunate day for black people when booker washington julius rosenwald met and trusted each other it was the hard commonsense in each that appealed

to the other on his fiftieth birthday of august nineteen twelve rosenwald gave tuskegee twenty five thousand dollars for campus improvements and to help some of its affiliated institutions it's projects were completed twenty eight hundred dollars was left over washington persuaded his friend to let him build a few schools with the money in the era of rosenwald schools began neither man could possibly imagine the results of their experiment but from that seed money soul in alabama or grow forests of mighty trees over a quarter century more than five thousand black schools spread over fifteen southern states from maryland to texas to julius rosenwald fund established in nineteen seventeen contributed more than four million dollars toward their construction the first rule appeared in nineteen thirteen built ago the sort of twelve miles from tuskegee would it was twenty eight by forty feet

had to lose an outdoor toilets for the boys and girls its larger windows took full advantage of the outside a lot forty two dollars to three hundred dollars and the rest was raised by its teacher persistent and persuasive than you realize she surprised everyone by getting three hundred sixty dollars from whites the local blacks miraculously street together one hundred fifty dollars to buy the land and contribute another one hundred thirty two dollars in labor five more schools quickly followed and megan lee and montgomery county's the first six together a spy thousand three hundred fifty four dollars of which rosenwald gave roughly one for the rest came from those who live in the communities white and black and from the state of alabama from the outset to rosenwald had two primary reasons for supporting black education first he wanted to stimulate public agencies to take a larger share of

their social responsibility second was to spur a pattern of community cooperation that would foster lasting change in how residents treated each other as financial formula with a rigid for every school he required self help matter how hard it was to achieve he would give his year only when convinced that everyone in the community wanted the school raising money was all but impossible for blacks who had nothing and could barely put food on the table but if given the chance to get to school they didn't hesitate to sacrifice booker washington visit the first four schools built in alabama rosenwald about the experience that people showed in a very acceptable way their gratitude to you for what you are helping them do i've never seen a set of people who have changed so much with in recent years from a feeling of almost despair and hopelessness to one of encouragement and determination the oak

grove school in hale county was typical of the early rosenwald schools two rooms pot bellied stove outdoor toilets no electricity but a solid structure with a good roof and good natural lighting it remains today a microcosm of the vast project that had its birth in alabama owned i the adjacent oak grove baptist church it is used for church functions and contains historical displays about the community and people their crime a price go to be in this area was that the people in the community needed to raise at least one barrett of the cost of that school and for the people in this community to square one touch it because they're that it was pretty poor so they sell a thousand chicken thing hayden low fee for him to hide even they thought of thing and they were able to raise the amount of money of course time people in the community than the answer the cherubic four

to attend school also a simple contribution the family and a good teaching here in the screw and the interests that some teachers put on education you came to scooter and they always say if a student has not a nun and teaches cosmetology they call them i guess they felt that we need to head along with their family and give amateurs and the principles of the family screw it i think the foundation here was axel it was not that means students and there was a lot of time and patient given to each each student the rosenwald schools were

able to think children a little bit farther and eight told us that we could be anything we want to be and we could do anything they taught us and discipline and responsibility and even though at that time the south was segregated we were told that some day things would be better and we hit the paper that day because we have to compete with all races in his will the jeans funded with money from pennsylvania quaker and the gene's supply trained teachers who talked more than six hundred thousand children to read and write and about good citizenship gertrude thompson of tuscaloosa attended a two room rosenwald school in greene county third grade through eighth grade were they built a noose gloom and mentor what he calls spring he'll roles and well and my mother said let me go and hear what i'll call slack and attendance

going and it was so much better than the bone screws it was much larger and that hit because it's where we could hang out colts and put our lunches their rooms also lice to that they own prices could kill the it be in different places and not be disturbing each other in the rules in law school in nineteen fourteen the schoolhouse experiment expanded when rosenwald gave washington thirty thousand dollars toward building one hundred rural schools he also guarantee that amount for five years tuskegee manage the huge project to develop an operational plan that became the basis for the design and construction of every rosenwald school built in the south over the next twenty years the rosenwald fund applied the established formula getting no more than one third of the cost her school and each community sometimes with help from state government had to raise

that much or more as it sheer seth low chairman of the tuskegee trustees said we're not only hoping the country you're better by nineteen fifteen in washington and his agents were traveling the back roads of the south bay in night they went to churches fraternal meetings barbecues picnics singing at any other gathering that would have their message was always the same to arouse interest and support to meet the requirements for a new school many blacks who didn't want change for their children or who didn't trust a rich man from chicago to deliver on his promise and have whites in the community opposed to school for the blacks agents moved on the momentum claimed the tragic toll on november fourteen nineteen fifteen over washington died on the day of his funeral at schools have been built and twelve more were under construction born a slave is a classic autobiography was titled

up from slavery washington dedicated his life to educating his people ultimately gave his life for the cause a few months later the nineteen sixteen alabama legislature took an historic step to validate the faith and determination of washington and his friends it passed legislation providing for the construction of black schools with help from the state the rosenwald project was an experiment no longer it was law during world war one the building pace was slower but it continued by nineteen twenty six hundred thirty eight schools have been constructed one hundred ninety seven of which were in alabama the others were scattered throughout nine states but the growing construction became too much for tuskegee to run with a limited staff in nineteen twenty the headquarters was moved to nashville samuel smith experience in construction was named general field

agent he drew up a series of stock blueprints for seventeen types of schools that enabled any community to build a quality facility without paying architect's fees next living quarters for teachers were added at many schools with the fallen to pay one thousand dollars of this costs as well the fund then took more responsibility for the total school experience getting seed money to create school libraries and for buses to transport children the cooperation of julius rosenwald on has made it possible for many county boards of education to provide new and modern buildings the success of that building program has been degraded large measure to the spirit of cooperation manifested toward the board of education by the white citizenship that the girls themselves have as a rule like an initiative and raisin the fonz necessary to match county and state aid and rosenwald a lot that year alabama spent thirty two thousand at four dollars on buildings

equipment and libraries for black children the state and private sources provided nearly twenty seven thousand dollars and the rosenwald fund contributed to rest the great crash of nineteen twenty nine reduce the fund's assets but for sound management it's trustees metal legends and continuing the program in full by then rosenwald had changed his philosophy toward the project he gave the fund twenty thousand shares of steer start in nineteen twenty six and instructed that all the proceeds be spent within twenty five years after his death julius rosenwald died in february nineteen thirty two at age seventy nations i'd memorial services followed in more than sixty cities prompted by supporters of the black ymca is that rosenwald had helped to fly test ed held its own service in the campus chapel the memorial included some of his favorite music is spiritual walk in jerusalem just like going whoa in the main

address principal robert morton said that rosenwald so neither race nor create whatever that was in the hell the most significant influence of julius rosenwald behalf of the negro was not an intrinsic value of the investments in labor education but in the spiritual achievement but winning the cooperation of black people and white people of private citizens and public officials a philanthropist and wage earners northerners and southerners bynum when old people and young people in a common enterprise that head as this first project the advancement of the negro race and his ultimate purpose the destruction of all barriers of clans condition called hinkley rosenwald never saw his most basic rules achieve separate schools for whites and blacks remained until nineteen fifty four when the us supreme court struck now public school segregation the fund's administrator edwin and

dream of knowledge the inequity in nineteen forty one he wrote the negro does not receive educational opportunity and quote the white students at the same community in any separate school systems in building a five thousand three hundred fifty seven schools libraries and future storms the rosenwald fund never challenged segregation rather than stressed the strong elementary schools up to the eighth grade supplemented by the occasional instruction such as harming her voice and homemaking for girls author thomas attention noted that rosenwald schools educating students to beat reporters instead of giving them the capacity to lead role a lot schoolhouse construction formally ended in nineteen thirty two the abandonment and closing of the vast rosenwald network began after the supreme court decision that struck down segregated school but some state and use long

past nineteen fifty for several more in hale county which had thirteen rosenwald schools it was the job of assistant superintendent robert raining to phase them out and consolidate the smallest most isolated schools with schools in the largest turnout he started the task in nineteen forty seven we had to place a mile and we were there about agrees and goes a main objective was to phase out those little remote screws in the shacks in the churches and a lot else forage we did that for a cultural small bill and little more adequate and we utilize it until we could be about you couldn't just total screw out here and that those jones ok you got to go to a certain location you get your own way by it and we couldn't do that we did do that and as we could provide the transportation and we could provide a classroom we can move those sure are into these they're so much alabama built three hundred

ad to rosenwald schools located in sixty four that sixty seven counties the three exceptions were dekalb winston and claiborne county's most schools are located near a church in bor such appropriate names as thankful peace and goodwill godsend and rough and ready the schools have all but disappeared from the rural landscape through decline and ruined some however have been saved and are still in use among them our oak grove which didn't close until the nineteen sixties and the old mehran school in bullock county both continuing uses community centers we head out to go and when this issue with you recall it was a grand ayatollahs many productive citizens came out this is also who was look out all that ran in rundown now but what the proper happened the community and with a lot of the building that we should

apple this building a lot of connecticut to discuss and to hold on to history so that we can see that we are going to follow but we still have a place in the past that we can show our grandchildren and show our children sure that that this is how our our education began and they can look forward to coming into the community and by that there's still some place there that a skull our roof of the community and that's what this bill is the community is still all the rights just going insane you know like to me he calls it was not count basie the car how the trees commission with assistance from the alabama historical commission is trying to locate any remaining rosenwald schools and nominate them to the national register of historic places jeff mansell is the former assistant director of the commission recorded at the project and today we recognize the significance of the school's historically and we began to compile information

and to making cars and icann is we had surveyed yet and just gone out there are some existing rosenwald schools in these counties that will be grateful to mr julius rosenwald schools to the file and perhaps poor black children tend to two have built fifty three hundred school buildings itself is an accomplishment to build and for african americans who had before then lucky if they had had been going to school for four months in a former corn created to walk in the end it's hard for us to imagine what the experience was like to have it ended your form of

school term unicorn created in the next fall combat for a school term in a brand new haskell building with light boards with desks with loggers provided by the rosenwald fund with programs and daughter and well equipped and with trained teachers and i don't think you can you can trivialize that that has got to be an incredible educational opportunity for all those schoolchildren and then five or higher that he choose our hands and the community prepares there that we could go out in the world and russia i think we

can say that we have video tape copies of this program maybe purchased by calling one eight hundred four six three a date to five learn more about this and other

programs from the album experience on the world wide web at the beat of utopian thought allah tv dot org