Latest news with #JuliusRosenwald
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Traveling exhibit at Langston Centre focuses on Black education
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — A traveling exhibit exploring the history of Black education in Tennessee will be on display at Johnson City's Langston Centre for most of the summer. 'Building a Bright Future: Black Communities and Rosenwald Schools in Tennessee' will be on display at the Langston Centre through July 29. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tri-Cities housing market still favors sellers, analyst says The Tennessee State Museum created the exhibit, which tells the story of Black education in the Volunteer State. The exhibit takes visitors from the Reconstruction Era to the present and also emphasizes the importance of the Rosenwald program in Tennessee. Rosenwald Schools were built across the South in the early 1900s, thanks to Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, to provide Black children with an education. Leadership at the Langston Centre said the Rosenwald program left a profound impact on Tennessee, including Northeast Tennessee. 'The majority of those schools came from Middle and West Tennessee, but there were some Rosenwald Schools built in East Tennessee,' said Adam Dickson, the multi-cultural engagement manager at the Langston Centre. 'So we think about Newport, even a couple in Sullivan County. Funds from the Rosenwald Trust were used to build the auditorium here at Langston High School, so there is a connection to Rosenwald Schools even in this part of the state.' According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it is estimated that by 1928, one-third of the South's rural Black children and teachers were served by a Rosenwald School. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Impossible' achieved: Okahumpka segregated school restoration breaks ground
After five years of raising money, following other failed attempts, community members gathered Monday to ceremonially shovel some dirt. They were marking the occasion, many thought impossible: the beginning of the restoration of Okahumpka's Rosenwald School. The school was built in 1930 amid a national effort to educate the nation's Black children, using money from Sears CEO Julius Rosenwald. It was a two-room schoolhouse until 1961, when it was converted into a community center. The center closed in 2003, and the wood-frame building sat abandoned ever since, braving Florida's hurricanes without doors and windows. 'I didn't know what I was getting into when I offered to help raise some money,' Chris D'Amico said, not joking. For the past five years, D'Amico has led the charge to save the school from demolition. He boarded up the building to protect it from the weather, wrote grants and got it added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. With the $452,000 raised from community members, D'Amico will manage the restoration of the building to its 1930 condition. One room will be reconstructed to reflect the era when children were seated at desks arranged by grade level. The other room will transform into an educational center focused on the history of the school. After the four-month restoration is finished, a community center will be constructed behind the historic schoolhouse. 'This community hasn't been a community since [the center closed],' D'Amico said. 'It's just everybody by themselves.' Funding for the project has come from all places, including the Florida and Lake County governments, the National Christian Foundation, the Jewish American Society, the National Trust for Historic Places and private donations. The James Hardie Building Materials Company will also supply all exterior siding, trim and other materials. Several school graduates were among the crowd, and they still have fond memories of recess, teachers and friendships. 'It's just a glorious feeling today to be here for this groundbreaking,' Harriet Hawkins Livingston, a descendent of the family that donated the land for the school, said. 'I just can't explain the joy of being here today, witnessing this -- seeing the truck, seeing the guys going and coming, working -- marvelous.' Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
