St. George Rosenwald School, in Dorchester County, South Carolina, would be one of three ambassador schools under a proposal co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn to establish a national historic park of Rosenwald schools. (Photo courtesy of St. George Rosenwald School)
COLUMBIA — A school that opened 100 years ago for Black children in the Lowcountry could become part of a proposed, multi-state national historical park that connects the remaining structures where tens of thousands of students were educated in the Jim Crow South.
St. George Rosenwald School in rural Dorchester County, which reopened in 2023 as a museum, is among what’s left of nearly 5,000 schools built between 1912 and 1932.
A federal bill co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn would create a network of those that still stand, called the Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historic Park.
It’s named after the philanthropist who initially partnered with Tuskegee University founder Booker T. Washington, then with Black communities across 15 states to help fund the schools.
The bill lists three schools as “representative sites,” meant to serve as starting points for visitors to get a glimpse of how they looked in their prime.
The St. George school, which opened in 1926, is one of them.
“We call ourselves a hidden jewel, and we’d be more than happy to share it not only with the local community but the entire United States of America,” said Ralph James. The lifetime resident of St. George chairs the foundation that runs the museum housed within the renovated school building.
The schools designated as examples could then lead visitors through a network showing what remains of the schools made possible by Rosenwald, dubbed “America’s first social philanthropist.”
How many schools might be part of the network is unclear, since many were forgotten and fell into disrepair.
A visitor’s center in Chicago, where Rosenwald amassed his wealth as the president of Sears Roebuck and Co., would tell the story of the schools and the man born in 1862 to German Jewish immigrants.
“Documenting and preserving African Americans’ rich history and enduring struggle for freedom and liberty are essential in our pursuit of a more perfect Union,” Clyburn, a Democrat from Orangeburg County, said in a statement. “Rosenwald’s legacy and contributions will tell the story of struggle and perseverance for years to come.”
The bill was introduced last month by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois. Clyburn is among four co-sponsors. It has yet to receive a hearing.
For years, Rosenwald schools were the only place Black children could reliably get an education.
By 1928, one-third of all Southern Black students attended a Rosenwald school, which accounted for nearly one-fifth of rural schools in the South, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
SC had 500 Rosenwald schools for Black children. Nonprofits want to save the 44 that remain.
That included nearly 500 schools in South Carolina. Of those, 44 remain, according to nonprofits studying the schools in an effort to preserve them.
Rosenwald fronted a portion of the money to start the schools, but local Black communities chipped in to help fund the rest.
All told, Rosenwald and his charity spent about $4.3 million on the schools, and neighbors raised more than $4.7 million to bring them into their communities, according to a history of the schools the national historic trust compiled.
Many closed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separating schoolchildren based on their race was unconstitutional. Schools in the South would take years to fully integrate, but the Brown v. Board of Education decision led to Rosenwald schools being vacated.
Many sat neglected, as surrounding communities forgot about them or lacked the funds to maintain them. Once a beacon of hope for Black students, many of the buildings spent decades decomposing.
Grassroots efforts to save the school buildings, led by alumni and preservation groups, started gaining traction in the 2000s. Some of the rescued schools, like the one in St. George, reopened as museums, while others converted into community spaces.
The designation of a national historic park would further that effort, creating the first comprehensive map of surviving schools and teaching people an often-overlooked history, said Dorothy Canter, who established a nonprofit based in Bethesda, Maryland, to push for the federal designation, called the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Campaign.
“This is a remarkable story of how people of different backgrounds and cultures worked together to make our country a better place,” Canter said in a statement. “It needs to be told in a new National Historical Park.”
National historic parks are different from the popular scenic national parks, though both are run under the same federal agency.
National parks generally preserve areas of ecological significance, such as the lowland swamp of Congaree National Park near Columbia. Historic parks preserve parts of the country’s heritage, often across large or disconnected areas.
South Carolina has two other national historic parks: Reconstruction Era National Historic Park, based in Beaufort, and Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, in the Charleston Harbor.
St. George Rosenwald School looks largely the same these days as it did during its 28 years as a school, James said.
Instead of sitting empty and falling into disrepair after its closure in 1954, the school housed a series of nonprofit organizations, political groups and community centers that kept the building standing but changed little about how it looked, he said. The last occupant left the space in 1970, and only then did the building begin to deteriorate.
Unlike other buildings, St. George also never went forgotten. James, who attended the school through second grade, and other local alumni kept tabs on it. Around 15 years ago, that group decided to make a real push to save their school, James said.
In 2016, work to renovate the site began in earnest, and it officially reopened to the public in 2023.
The Legislature provided $1.3 million toward the expenses through the state budget.
One half of the building, which is shaped like the letter H, is a satellite campus for the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry, with a child-sized town and grocery store placed within the refurbished classrooms. The other half is arranged the way the school would have looked while operating.
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“I’m just happy that we’re at a point now where we can see the fruits of our labors,” the 79-year-old said.
Along with providing a glimpse into the past, the school is one of the larger remaining locations in the country, James said.
The size of the schools was determined based on the number of teachers, and St. George had six, a relatively large number for the rural schools, though others had as many as 10, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“I think (visitors) would have a unique opportunity here in St. George to see a large school and to see much of it in its original state,” James said.
Along with bringing in more people, partnering with the National Park Service would mean more resources, James said. He estimated more than 100 people visit the school every week, but nearly everyone who runs the place is a volunteer, he said.
With federal help, the foundation could hire more workers and spend more on maintenance, ensuring the museum stays in good shape, James said.
“That would be a great, great opportunity for us,” James said.
The work is about more than keeping a building standing, James said.
Preserving the school also means preserving “the idea and ideals in which they stood for at that time: creating hope, empowering the residents to have concern and care for their community,” James said.
“This is what it was all about, and that’s the uniqueness of the Rosenwald educational project,” James said.
National Park Service sites in South Carolina
Source: National Park Service
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
