Rosenwald Schools
Rosenwald Schools were schools set up by money from the Rosenwald Fund. This fund was created in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald to encourage construction of schools for rural black children, mostly in the South, who were underserved. The fund required communities to raise matching funds, including the use of public money and the support of school boards. At the time, the school boards were run by whites and the schools were segregated. Blacks had been disfranchised throughout the South, so services for them were typically underfunded. Black communities strongly supported the schools, raising money, and sometimes contributing land and labor. The schools were built to model designs developed by architects at Tuskegee University, a historically black college. The Rosenwald Fund stimulated the construction of more than 4,977 schools and related structures for African-American children before its depletion in 1948.
Seven Rosenwald Schools built in communities in Gates County. In some areas, such schools have been converted to community centers and other uses.
- Corapeake (still standing)
- Reid's Grove (still standing)
- T.S. Cooper
- Hobbsvile
- Reynoldson
- Sunbury
- Roduco
Read more about this topic: Gates County, North Carolina, Education
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