[piano intro] [film reel clicking] [sad solemn vocalizing] [solemn country music] [sad solemn vocalizing] [solemn vocalizing intensifies] [sad solemn vocalizing continues] - [Narrator] North Carolina's Public schools for Black children were in crisis in the early 20th century.

The reasons why were rooted in slavery.

- During slavery, it was illegal for African Americans to learn how to read.

It was illegal for African Americans to write.

- It was dangerous to be caught learning to read or teaching someone to read or to write.

So even though there were people who knew how to do it and people were working in secret with others to educate them, it was risky.

- Possessing a piece of paper with writing was a dangerous offense that an African American could, you know, and it's, a person could be punished for violently.

So these were tools and African Americans, slaves knew that these were important tools for freedom.

- [Narrator] When freedom came after the Civil War African Americans exercised their new rights as citizens.

They worked to ensure that they would never be denied education again.

- During the 1868 State Convention in North Carolina to adopt a constitution, the African American delegates to the state constitution were the greatest proponents for including universal education into the state constitution.

- And so in that constitution is embedded, the privilege of education is guaranteed for everyone, white, Black, and Indian.

Between the ages of six and 21 - [Narrator] Unfortunately, the constitutional mandate was largely ignored.

As the years passed, African Americans gradually lost most of the gains they'd made.

Another revision to the Constitution in 1876 specified that Blacks and whites were to attend separate schools.

But white controlled school districts failed to provide equal support for Black schools and students.

African American churches, the leading institutions in Black communities stepped in.

- And there was a desire of people to be able to read the Bible for themselves.

And as a part of those churches, schools were created within the churches until they could afford to build a building outside of the church.

- [Narrator] Even so, communities were poor and churches didn't have the resources necessary for schools.

Conditions for African American citizens grew worse as the 19th century drew to a close.

A white supremacy movement was on the rise across the South, especially in North Carolina.

In 1898, armed mobs of white citizens overthrew the biracial elected city government in Wilmington, a majority Black city.

As many as 60 Blacks were murdered, and thousands of Black citizens fled Wilmington never to return.

Jim Crow's control of North Carolina was now complete.

[gentle solemn music] Keeping Blacks uneducated was one of Jim Crow's goals.

One way to do that was to spend as little as possible on Black schools.

Then in 1915 came a sign that the times were changing in North Carolina.

A new school for Black children was built in Chowan County.

Warren Grove School, built near Warren Grove Missionary Baptist Church had two classrooms.

The sturdy wooden building was as fine as any school for white children in Northeastern North Carolina.

It cost $1,622.

A portion of the funding came from a benefactor outside the state.

Warren Grove was a Rosenwald School.

[uplifting gentle music] - Rosenwald Schools helped us, the Black children because we were going to school in barns.

Folks were teaching in the homes, anything but a school.

Rosenwald gave us a school and presented us with teachers to help us to learn.

- [Narrator] A donation from Julius Rosenwald helped build the Chowan County schools.

Rosenwald was president and part owner of Sears, Roebuck, one of the nation's best known companies.

There was a Sears catalog in virtually every home, Black and white.

- In the 20th century, Sears, Roebuck was the Amazon of its day.

And what Sears and Roebuck did was to figure out how to do mass merchandising and create the first national retail outlet with catalogs.

But the guy behind the the scenes who was working it all out was Julius Rosenwald.

- [Narrator] Rosenwald, a son of German Jewish immigrants, also was a philanthropist known for supporting African American causes.

He valued education even though he was not a high school graduate.

The idea for Rosenwald to help pay for schools came from Booker T. Washington, founder and president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Washington, born into slavery in 1856 was the nation's best known Black educator.

- Well, the relationship between Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington may seem dissimilar but I think in many respects, the two men shared certain things in common.

They were both self-made men.

- They looked into the future and they said, "We can have a better life as a community if we educate our people."

And so they wanted to give those young children, those young people a spirit of you can do whatever you dream, you can be whatever you desire to be.

- [Narrator] The first step was to find a way to break Jim Crow's grip on public funds, to build schools for Black students, and staff them with qualified teachers.

A pilot school construction project in Alabama was a huge success.

Well-built Schoolhouses drew broad community support and the children given the opportunity to learn proved to be quite capable students.

In February, 1915, Rosenwald came from Chicago to see for himself.

He was overwhelmed by the appreciation shown him by the students and their families.

Convinced that the schoolhouse scheme had merit, he and Washington developed a plan to extend the building program to other Southern states.

But Rosenwald's support was just part of a novel approach to funding.

- He decided that a new formula had to be created and he and Washington worked it out.

And the idea was that he would give between a quarter and a third of the money.

50% had to come from public funds, state and local government.

The other pieces of the funding puzzle were the African Americans in the community themselves.

And actually they provided more money for the schools overall than Rosenwald did.

- We know that the majority of the energy to create these schools is generated from the African American community.

People who have very intimate knowledge of being denied education by law, right?

As enslaved people being denied the right to read, denied the right to write.

They are strongly desiring education and they're putting in all of their resources toward Rosenwald Schools.

- [Narrator] No matter how enticing, the school building plan would not move forward by itself.

Implementation would require patient, skillful people at the state level, working to persuade Blacks and whites in each county to support the plan.

In North Carolina, several individuals played critical roles in the push to build Rosenwald Schools.

Chief among them was Nathan Carter Newbold, a white man.

He was director of the Department of Public Instructions Division of Negro Education.

Newbold's right hand, working with Black communities as well as white leadership was George E. Davis, an African American.

Davis previously had been a professor at Biddle University, the forerunner of Johnson C. Smith University.

Another essential person in the Division of Negro Education was Annie W. Holland.

An African American woman, Holland was supervisor of Black elementary schools.

In 1939, Newbold directed the publication of a book praising the careers of five Black educators.

Holland was the only woman.

- Annie founded lots of organizations but one of the main organizations she founded was the North Carolina Parent Teachers Association which became part of the National Parent Teachers Association.

So Annie's footprint is everywhere when you think of Black education in North Carolina because she's the founder, she's the foundation.

- N.C. Newbold really devoted his life to bettering Black education.

His job involved working with legislators, working with counties, working with communities and he negotiated and navigated that for 37 years.

That must have been close to his heart.

- [Narrator] Though he was a huge advocate for Black education, Newbold was a man of his times.

He was not an advocate for integration or racial equality.

- And one of the problems we have with that is that at the core of what Newbold was also trying to do is protect the boundaries of segregation.

But his purpose was still really to build schools and his purpose was to give access to everyone to a decent school.

- I think he got into education purely for really the right reasons.

I think he believed, reading some of his papers and his letters, he really believed that education was important to make a full person.

And that given the opportunity that everyone could better themselves.

- [Narrator] Part of Newbold's motivation was faith-based.

- Somewhere along the line, he visited some schools for Black children in North Carolina and was appalled at the circumstances and I have a very strong quote that I could share with you that I think tells kinda why he did what he did.

"The average negro schoolhouse is really a disgrace to an independent, civilized people.

To one who does not know our history, these school houses, though mute, would tell in unmistaken terms a story of injustice, inhumanity and neglect on the part of white people.

Such a condition would appear to an observer as intolerable, indefensible, and above all, unchristian."

I think he set about to change that.

- [Narrator] Within four years of the launch of the school building program, Booker T. Washington suddenly died.

The program eventually outgrew Tuskegee's ability to manage it, and Rosenwald set up an independent administrative office in Nashville, Tennessee.

Black communities throughout the south clamored for the Rosenwald Fund support.

The first architectural plans were provided by Tuskegee.

Later plans were provided by the Rosenwald Fund, whether for a one-room school or a building with six or more classrooms.

The standardized designs demonstrated forward thinking concepts.

Some designs featured classrooms with movable partition walls, making them adaptable for different uses.

They were bright and well-ventilated, especially important in the South in the days before electrification.

- [Virginia] Windows everywhere.

Windows, windows and more windows.

- [Narrator] Robert Robinson Taylor, Tuskegee's campus architect, created the first schoolhouse plans.

A North Carolina native born in Wilmington, Taylor was the first African American to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- And when you look at access to education, buildings are important.

They say something.

And Rosenwald Schools said something and it revolutionized the way we often think about schools being built.

- [Narrator] Black communities held fundraisers and social events to raise their portion of the construction costs.

Sometimes a farmer or a church would donate land for the school site.

People with little to give offered nickels, dimes, and sometimes more.

Charles H. Moore, a founder of North Carolina A&T State University also helped rally community support for Rosenwald Schools.

He wrote this about an event in Edgecombe County.

- [Narrator] An old man, about 75 years old pulled out of his pocket a soiled rag in which, when counted was $23 and 45 cent.

He said, "Mr. Moore, you can see I'm an old man.

I have no children myself to go to school, but before I die, I want to see a schoolhouse in this place where the children of other members of my race may go and get an education.

I've been two years begging and saving for this purpose."

Following his example, there was a rush to the table and in less than an hour, $600 was laid upon it.

- And so you have people who will give their last dime, who will give land away to build these schools because, you know, you need at least three acres.

They will do things like clear the land and we often don't talk about those kinds of donations that are made.

So if you own land and you're giving it up for a school, what does that say about community?

What does that say about the collective?

It says that they value education.

- [Narrator] The students understood their school's promise of opportunity.

- They wanted to learn.

They wanted to learn.

And the parents were older parents who didn't have much education, but they believed in education and those children were in school and smart children.

I don't ever remember failing.

Not one child, the whole time I worked down in South Mill, not failing one.

- [Narrator] South Mill School in Camden County had electricity by the time Virginia Jones started her teaching career in the late 1940s.

Her husband, a New Yorker with a doctorate in education was the principal.

- So since we had electricity, he showed a movie every Saturday.

And the parents came, had more parents than they had children [chuckles].

- [Narrator] These country schoolhouses hosted agricultural extension classes in the evenings, voter registration events, and weekend social gatherings.

Sooner or later, almost everyone in the Black community felt a part of the school.

The Rosenwald Fund continued its work for nearly 20 years, helping to build 787 schools in North Carolina, more than any other state.

As the decades pass, especially after integration, the schools were phased out.

Some were sold and converted to homes.

Farmers bought them for storage.

Some just stood empty.

Almost all were nearly forgotten, except by the alumni.

Ella Perry attended Panther Branch School in Wake County's Juniper Level community.

- This school had no lights, no indoor toilets or bathrooms.

We had to bring the water from the well across the the street from the church for the children to drink.

Each child had their own mason jar.

- [Narrator] Mrs. Perry went on to attend Shaw University and became a teacher.

Her first classroom assignment was at Riley Hill School, another Wake County Rosenwald School.

Even though the Rosenwald School campaign created much better facilities for Black students, many inequalities existed and they were apparent even to the youngest Black students.

- I learned early on that all, you know, things are just not equal.

And you know, we learned along the way.

We got books that already had names in 'em.

- [Narrator] For decades, some counties did not provide bus service for Black students.

That often meant walking long distances to school in all kinds of weather.

- My parents had 14 children, all grew up to be adults and we all walked to school and that was about a four mile walk each way.

So we wore out our clothing, shoes, socks, everything we had on.

We wore them out frequently.

- We got the desk that we used in the Gatlin Creek School already had writing on 'em, had been chipped.

You know, like a knife had been, you know, chipped and all those things.

So we knew we were using secondhand things.

So we learned that's another way of learning to make the best of what you have.

- [Narrator] Rosenwald alumni credit their teachers for inspiring them to do their best and to follow their dreams.

- I think that the teachers had such an appreciation of their own training and they wanted to extend that and let you fly even higher.

- [Narrator] Sisters, Dorothy James and Eudoxia Dalton remember when a traveling filmmaker came to their school in the early 1940s.

- [Dorothy] There's Eudoxia!

Your friend, Delphine and Daisy, is that who they are?

- [Narrator] Rosenwald Schools touched the lives of generations of Black students in 15 states, stretching from Maryland to Texas.

- Hundreds of thousands of African Americans would not have had access to education because of segregation, because of Jim Crow laws, because of state's rights.

Even though slavery in its original form no longer existed, the object was to keep the minds of people enslaved.

The Rosenwald Schools turned that around.

Once you teach me to read and think for myself, you cannot take that back.

You can never enslave my mind again.

- [Narrator] Author, poet, and teacher, Maya Angelou who attended a Rosenwald School in Arkansas became known far and wide.

So did North Carolina's Eunice Waymon, though by another name.

In Western North Carolina, Eunice Waymon attended Tryon Colored School where everyone knew of her exceptional musical talent.

Later she became known the world over as Nina Simone, a pianist, songwriter, singer, and civil rights activist.

Lorenzo Lynch attended Hamilton Colored School in Martin County in the 1940s.

He went to college and became a widely respected minister.

First in Greensboro and later in Durham.

His daughter, Loretta Lynch graduated from Harvard Law School.

She later served as a US attorney in New York and in 2015, was sworn in as Attorney General of the United States.

- The Rosenwald didn't give you the masters or the doctorate, but it prepared you to be admitted for the masters or the doctorate or the college.

The Rosenwald School's the ladder of which many of us stepped.

- [Narrator] Today, Rosenwald Schools can still be found all across the Tar Heels state.

Some that once were in the country have been swallowed up by cities.

Some have been lovingly preserved while others await their chance to be saved.

[performer singing in a foreign language] [crowd singing in a foreign language] - [Narrator] Walnut Cove Colored School in 1999 was one of the first Rosenwald Schools to be preserved by its alumni.

Like many rescued schools, it continues to serve its community in new ways.

- Will want the proclamation and recognition of this historic building where- - Here I am, you know first female mayor in my hometown.

My mother went to school there and a lot of relatives and former school teachers.

It means a lot to me.

They've made a path for me to follow.

- [Narrator] Recognized or not, preserved or fading away, Rosenwald Schools created a lasting impact on North Carolina.

- But I think we owe Rosenwald a debt far above many of these other debt because there's just so many folk who wouldn't have gone to school, had there not been a school to which to go.

- And if it had not been for Rosenwald, I don't know where we would've been.

Some of the Blacks, I don't know where we would've been.

And I'm grateful to them for coming together and having some of that Sears and Roebuck money to help us out and wanted to help us.

They wanted to help us.

They wanted to see us do well, and we did.

[crowd singing in foreign language] [crowd continues singing in foreign language] [crowd continues singing in foreign language] [crowd continues singing in foreign language]