03-06-2025
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.
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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.
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