Kyle Kellams: Next month, the Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas State Archives will host “Shaping the Future of Black Education Then and Now” at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock.
Topics covered on Saturday, Feb. 7, include a presentation focusing on the creation of Southland College by members of the 5th United States Colored Troops in Helena and a session dedicated to the history of funding and administrative support for historically Black colleges. Ralph Wilcox, National Register and survey coordinator at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, will also speak. His topic, “Rosenwald Schools in Arkansas and the Greater South.”
Ralph Wilcox: Rosenwald schools were schools for African Americans that were partially funded by Julius Rosenwald, who was president of Sears and Roebuck in the early 20th century. He believed that African American education was a cause that he could really make a difference in. And so he gave grants for African American African American schools all across the Southern United States.
Kellams: Many of these schools, if not all of them, built in places where young Black students were not afforded equal education opportunities.
Wilcox: That is correct. And that was part of the reason why he did it, is he felt that if he provided funds to help construct schools, it would give African Americans a better education because they would have better facilities in which to learn in.
Kellams: He was a contemporary of and a friend of Booker T. Washington?
Wilcox: Yes. He was inspired by Booker T. Washington's autobiography and met Booker T. Washington and Booker T. Washington asked Julius Rosenwald to serve on the board of trustees of Tuskegee University in Alabama. And it was that partnership and that friendship that led to the Rosenwald School program. Both Rosenwald and Booker T Washington were very much into improving African American education, and their friendship and partnership led to the program.
Kellams: Any idea how much money Rosenwald contributed over the decades for the construction of Rosenwald schools?
Wilcox: Off the top of my head, I don't know. But it was many millions of dollars over the course of the program. The program started in the mid-1910s, and the school building, part of the Rosenwald Fund, ceased operation in 1932.
Kellams: Any idea how many schools were built in total?
Wilcox: It was a little over 5,000 throughout the southeastern US.
Kellams: 5,000. How many do we think were in Arkansas?
Wilcox: In Arkansas, if I remember right, there were just under 400 that were built originally between about 1920 and 1932. Today, less than 20 of those survive.
Kellams: What do we know about the schools physically, what did they look like? What did they contain? How? How were students housed?
Wilcox: The schools varied in design. It depended on what was needed in a particular community. The schools varied from one room to the largest in Arkansas is Dunbar Junior High School in Little Rock, which was a junior high school, high school, and a junior college all in one. And of course, that building has multiple rooms.
They were supposed to have been built on a minimum of 2 acres so that not only would you have the school building, but you would have space for playground, athletic facilities, you know, such as a baseball field. And I believe there was also space to do such things as community gardens. They were really meant to not only be a school, but also, in certain respects, to be the center of the community.
Kellams: Were Rosenwald schools just school buildings, or were there other buildings that were constructed in this process?
Wilcox: The Rosenwald Fund funded school buildings, teachers homes, shop buildings, and also additions to existing schools.
Kellams: White communities near the Rosenwald schools, were they welcoming? Did they ignore this? Were there any challenges?
Wilcox: I don't know about challenges. I know that there were in funding for the schools. Funding came from several different sources. Funding came from the local community. Funding came from Julius Rosenwald. And there was also public funding involved. So at least to a certain extent, the white community was involved, at least through public funding, if they didn't do their own funding.
I don't know that there were any challenges to the schools, at least not that I've heard about around Arkansas. So as far as I know, the white community, at least on some level, was accepting.
Kellams: So a little bit more than 5,000 Rosenwald schools across the South. How would this happen? Would you have to have a liaison in a community or in a state to make sure this worked?
Wilcox: Well, of course you would have the state Board of Education involved. Also, a lot of them were spearheaded by a church. A local African American church would often kind of start the ball rolling to help raise the funds to get the grant from Rosenwald.
So when you look at the schools, a lot of them were in proximity to a church building, if not on the same parcel as a church.
Kellams: You'll be presenting a talk about Rosenwald schools and Julius Rosenwald soon. Tell me a little bit more about that weekend event.
Wilcox: It's part of a symposium that is put on by the Arkansas State Archives and the Black History Commission of Arkansas. They do symposia once or twice or three times a year. And the focus of this one coming up in February is African American education. And I will be one of the speakers at that symposium.
Kellams: You mentioned that it was in the thirties when the fund ended for these schools. Do we know approximately when the schools themselves stopped being used? Was it then or did it sort of trickle until the Supreme Court, Brown v. Education.
Wilcox: Yeah. The schools were used way beyond the thirties. Some of them were out of use when desegregation occurred. Because what often happened is even though the Rosenwald building was, you know, just as good as the white school that was also being used at that time. Unfortunately, there was a stigma. And so a lot of the schools stopped being used.
When desegregation occurred, in fact, the only one that is still in use in Arkansas that I know of is Dunbar.
Kellams: The other buildings that still stand in Arkansas, what kind of condition are they in? Does it vary?
Wilcox: It does vary. A lot of them are endangered. Quite honestly, there are several that are not being used and are just decaying. A couple of them are still in pretty good shape. One in Selma, in Drew County is used as a community center. And then there is also one in Arkadelphia Peak High School, which is still in pretty good shape and actively used.
Kellams: Most of the Rosenwald schools in Arkansas were in the southern part of the state, though there were a couple that got close to the Arkansas River, right?
Wilcox: Yeah, there was. Let me think. I think there was one, if I remember right, in Logan County, which was really kind of the furthest northwest that they went. The vast majority of them were in the southeastern half of the state, in the agricultural areas and in the timber areas.
The study of Rosenwald schools in Arkansas began in 2002 as a result of the National Trust for Historic Preservation putting them on their most endangered list that year. Nothing had really been done to study our state schools before that. There were a couple that were listed on the National Register individually, but no kind of systematic study or survey to see what was remaining. So a lot of what we have learned about our Rosenwald schools has occurred in the past 23, 24 years.
Kellams: All right. Ralph Wilcox, thank you so much for your time.
Wilcox: Sure, I appreciate it.
Kellams: Ralph Wilcox is National Register and survey coordinator at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. He'll deliver his presentation about Rosenwald schools on Saturday, Feb. 7, as part of Shaping the Future of Black Education, Then and Now at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock.
The event is free, but registration is required and must be made by next Monday, the 2nd. For more information MosaicTemplarsCenter.com or visit the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center on social media. Our conversation took place via Zoom yesterday.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
