The Rosenwald Schools began as a partnership between Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck & Co., and Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Institute, and Black communities throughout the South. Beginning in 1912 approximately 5,000 schools were built, including 354 in Tennessee. The schools helped foster Black academic achievement and many graduates became leaders of the Civil Rights movement.
The legacy of the Rosenwald Schools was featured in a temporary exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, in partnership with the Urban League, hosted community members last month at a tour of the exhibit. In addition to the tour, participants listened to several speakers. Among them were Clifton Harris, president and CEO of the Urban Leage of Middle Tennessee, Bari Beasley of the Heritage Foundation, Harold Benus, chair of the Jewish Community Relations Committee, and Georgia Harris, a Rosenwald School alumna.
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