Rosenwald’s and Washington’s Partnership for Good

By Jerry Klinger

Jerry Klinger

RECTORTOWN, Virginia — The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, www.JASHP.org, has funded and completed another marker it its series honoring and recognizing the Partnership for Good of Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Black educator Booker T. Washington. Rosenwald was key to the construction of over 5,400 schools, in the 13 States of “South” for Black school children. Millions of Black Americans were significantly benefited by Rosenwald’s generosity.

Rosenwald School Rectortown, Virginia

The marker reads:

The Rosenwald School in Rectortown, “No.12”

In 1912, Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, asked Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish Philanthropist and President of Sears, Roebuck & Company, to serve on the Board of Directors at Tuskegee. Their unique partnership led to the creation of the Rosenwald Fund to support the education of African-American children in the rural South. There were 382 Rosenwald schools built in Virginia between 1917 and 1932. Eight such schools in Fauquier County offered a quality education to untold numbers of African-Americans.

Mr. George W. Bannister and his wife, Addie, Rectortown residents, provided the land for the original No. 12 school at this site. Mr. Rosenwald wanted to provide seed money to encourage community support for a new and improved No.12. This new school was built in 1924 at a cost of $4,500. It was funded in three parts: the Black contribution – $800, public contribution -$3,000 and Rosenwald contribution – $700.

The growth and population in the 1950s necessitated a third classroom. The teachers, Miss L.E. Washington, Miss C.E. Lewis, and Mrs. Eura H. Lewis, taught grades 1-7 in this three room school. A retainer wall and its steps remain as a monument to No. 12. They were constructed in 1959 by a former pupil, Reginald Tines.

The No. 12 was closed in 1963 for the opening of the Northwestern Elementary School, later known as the Claude Thompson Elementary School.

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Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.