Before Brown vs. Board of Education and Bolling vs. Sharpe court cases, Rosenwald Schools were constructed to improve the educational environments for children in the rural South, with a move from church buildings and other inadequate facilities to new schoolhouses. The structures were completed between 1913 and 1932. During those years of education, one-third of the African American children in 15 southern states. These structures all became officially (if not immediately in practice) obsolete on the same day, May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court which ruled that public school segregation by race was unconstitutional in Topeka, Kansas and Washington, DC. Therefore, in the entire country!
Vyllorya Evans, a longtime Southwest resident, has made it her mission and passion to help preserve the history of the Rosenwald Schools that, starting in 1913, brought together Southern communities and the philanthropy of Sear, Roebuck president to create schoolhouses for African American children in places where previously they had none. Her research began in her native Monroe County Mississippi alongside her lifetime friend, Doris Dearing Johnson, who now resides in Sarasota, Florida.
Jennifer Baughn, Chief Architectural Historian of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, noted that by 1922, Mississippi had constructed 141 Rosenwald schools, including 58 buildings for three-teacher schools and five houses for teachers. She also stated that Mississippi received funding for 557 educational campuses—encompassing school buildings, vocational facilities, and teacher residences. Of these, only a small number still exist today, and none of the seven or eight Rosenwald schools once found in Monroe County remain standing. As a result, installing historical markers helps preserve the legacy of the churches, places of worship, and communities that played a significant role in advancing public education.
Bringing the conversation about schools that began in Mississippi to Washington, DC will be a program to be held on Thursday, February 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church Southwest DC. A panel will convene to discuss “The Rosenwald Schools: The Remarkable Story of Collaboration in the Face of Adversity.” This event is part of The Pearl Escape Project’s 2026 program series with a focus on “Stories of Erasure and Resistance.”
Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former Washington Post columnist, serves as the moderator for this dialogue. He is the author of Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America. In his book, Robinson recounts, “From first grade through junior high I attended Felton Training School, which was located on the South Carolina State University campus in an old Rosenwald schoolhouse.” His latest book is Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America which “tells our nation’s torturous racial history through his own family’s story.”
Also part of the program are Aviva Kempner, producer of the documentary film Rosenwald, and Stephanie Deutsch, the spouse of Julius Rosenwald’s great-grandson and the author of the book You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South. Also part of the panel will be Charlene Drew Jarvis, the daughter of Rosenwald Fellow Dr. Charles Drew and Vyllorya Evans, and Doris Johnson who will discuss their journey as they sought to preserve the history of their church and its connection to the legacy of Julius Rosenwald. Vyllorya is the daughter of former teachers. Doris is a Rosenwald graduate and the daughter of a former principal. They have led the effort to place historical markers at the former school sites. In their community organizing role, they currently serve as co-chairs of the Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County. The mission of the initiative is to preserve history through storytelling by former students and community leaders about the historic period in Black education in Mississippi and the nation.
As a local community-based model that can be replicated in other communities throughout the South, there is a county-wide movement to preserve the legacy of the schools that Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington envisioned. Working with local churches and places of worship, parishioners who are Rosenwald graduates help to engage residents in many facets of local, state, and national communities. This initiative is also endorsed by a partnership between former students, Prairie Rural Community Development Club, Amory Regional Museum, Monroe County Historical Society, civic organizations, and governmental entities.
The preservation began with the unveiling of three of seven historical markers at the site of Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Church where Higgason Rosenwald School once stood during segregation in the Deep South of the 1950s and 1960s. The second and third markers are West Amory High School and Sandy Clay Elementary School. Other markers will be erected at former elementary school sites including Jarmon, Smithville, Watkins, and Cole.
This inspiring story – and much more – will be presented as part of the Erasure series at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Southwest DC on Feb. 19 and 7 pm.
Jackie L. Williams, Ph.D. writes about people, places, and historical celebrations at the intersection of faith and public policy. She earned degrees in computer science, education, public policy, and religious studies/ethics and social justice from Jackson State University and Howard University. A native Mississippian, she is a Southwest Washington, DC resident of 26 years. She is a licensed tour guide, an ordained Christian minister, a Docent at the Washington National Cathedral and a past Chair of Friends of Rankin Chapel at Howard University.
