Our Roots: Churches & Schools

The Rosenwald Schools were a transformative network of modern schoolhouses built across the rural South for African American children in the early 20th century. They emerged in response to racial segregation and the chronic underfunding of Black education, which left students with aging buildings, hand-me-down books, and few resources.

In 1912, Booker T. Washington persuaded Sears Roebuck cofounder Julius Rosenwald to support a pilot project to build six elementary schools in Alabama—an idea that soon grew into one of the nation’s most influential educational initiatives.

What made the Rosenwald program remarkable was its partnership model: African American communities contributed funding, land, or labor; local school boards agreed to operate the schools; and the Julius Rosenwald Fund provided matching grants and standardized designs. Together, they created thousands of well-designed, light-filled classrooms that expanded access to quality education until the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

African American students in Culpeper, Greene, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock counties faced extreme difficulty acquiring a high school education. While Culpeper and Orange offered limited secondary programs, Greene, Madison, and Rappahannock provided no education past the 7th grade. The immense cost forced parents to send the majority of their children to the Manasas Industrial School for Colored Youth/ Jennie Dean School or to Christiansburg, VA. 

In 1946, the persistent struggle by African American citizens and the threat of legal action compelled the five counties to explore a regional high school. Following Greene's withdrawal, the remaining four counties concluded that a regional school was both necessary and economically advantageous. A formal resolution was subsequently proposed to the Governor of Virginia, William C. Tuck, to approve and allocate funds for the building's construction.