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EFFECTS OF THE ROSENWALD WORK IN NORTH CAROLINA

The Julius Rosenwald Fund has been responsible for five definite improvements in the building of community schools for the colored people of North Carolina.

1. It is required that a minimum of two acres of land on a public highway be procured for a site. As a result, we have over 300 buildings located on sites ranging from two to ten acres, taking the place of delapidated shacks that were formerly, in a large number of cases, located on the edge of thickets or other undesirable places where it was impossible to provide suitable playground or to set aside places for agricultural work. Play and recreation are recognized by all school men as necessary for the development of children. The Rosenwald Fund has been an important factor in making this possible for the colored children.

2. The erection of better buildings for both the white and colored people is the direct outgrowth of the Rosenwald building campaign in the south. The plans distributed by The Fund embody all of the hygienic requirements of a modern schoolhouse. Such important matters as the placement of the windows, the ventilation of the classrooms, the location of the cloakrooms, the color of the paint have been emphasized in this program and the good results are to be seen in all of our schoolbuildings that have been erected within the past two years. School officials who are daily using the Rosenwald buildings for both white and colored buildings are unanimous in their approval, so possibly the greatest practical and mature result of this Program in the state is the decided improvements which we have made in the planning and building of better schoolhouses.

3. One of the problems in the education of colored children has been to secure trained teachers. Graduates of our better institutions of learning have been unwilling to go into the rural districts and teach in buildings that were entirely inadequate in size and were in such a bad state of repair that proper heating was impossible. The Rosenwald schoolhouse has in a large measure met this objection. With good buildings, properly equiped, well-trained teachers are being attracted to the country schools, but even with better conditions in the schoolhouse, another handicap exists; that is, the impossibility of finding a suitable boarding place in the strictly rural districts. We are overcoming this by the buildings of teachers' homes. The contribution which The Fund makes toward these is very liberal and the plans are all that could be desired. In addition to providing a place where the teacher may live throughout the year, these homes serve as the model for the people of

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community who wish to improve their own living conditions.

4. With improved school plants, -- larger sites, adequate classroom space, better homes and good teacher -- the improvement in the morale of the colored populaltion has been almost phenominal. In the erection of almost every building in which the Fund has cooperated, the patrons of the school have contributed of their own personal funds. This one thing has done much to unite the people in a program for the common good and has caused them to take an interest in the schools which would have been impossible without the stimulus furnished by the contribution by Mr. Rosenwald.

5. To briefly summarize, it may be safely said that the Julius Rosenwald Fund has been an important factor in the advancement of the colored people. It has "brought order, peace, docility, out of a more or less chaotic disorderliness. It has brought hope and gladness and contentment to a large number of our people and has caused them to take an active interest in the education of their people and in the improvement and advancement of our State."

1.List of Schools(city) under construction aided by The Julius Rosenwald Fund or State loans:

[column 1] School

Bessemer City Kannapolis Scotland Neck Leaksville

[column 2] Number classrooms

8 8 8 10 [in pencil] 34

[column 3] Cost.

$16,000.00 10,085.00 28,800.00 60,000.00

Schools soon to be aided from the above sources:

[column 4] Franklinton Fayetteville Kinston Wadesboro, Alamance Co. Tng. (Burlington-Graham)

[column 5] 6 9 10 10

10 [in pencil] 45

[column 6] 20,000.00 30,000.00 35,000.00 30,000.00

35,000.00

Plannes for early construction:

[column 7] Wilmington Elizabeth City Roxboro [begin crossed out]?L[end crossed out] ? Wilson(addition)

[column 8] 20 10 8 10 10

[column 9] 85,000.00 30,000. 15,000. 30,000. 40,000

Total above:

[column 10] 58 34 45

$464,085[two superscript zeroes with a line under them]

ROSENWALD SCHOOLS IN NORTH CAROLINA

On October 8, 1915, Mr. N. C. Newbold, State Director of Negro Education, inspected the first colored school which recieved aid from the Julius Rosenwald Fund in North Carolina. It was a two teacher building erected at a cost of $1622.00. The contributions on this project were as follows:

Negroes $486.00 Public $836.00 Julius Rosenwald $800.00

Since that date we have erected 319 school buildings and 9 teachers homes. The total cost of these projects was $1,246, 327.00. The contributions are as follows:

Negroes $272,220.00 Whites 44,786.00 Public School Authorities-694,856.00 Julius Rosenwald Fund --------- $234,469.00

These buildings have a teacher capacity of 800 and a pupil capacity of 36,000. The sites contain a total acreage of __________acres, varying in size from two to ten acres.

It will be noted that the Negroes contributed out of private funds $272,220.00. This is, of course, in addition to the regular taxes which they paid and is several thousand dollars more than the aid which they recieved from Mr. Rosenwald. When we consider the limited wealth of these people the contributions seem even more remarkable.

The stories told by the patrons of the school in the interest of raising money as their part are sometimes pathetic, sometimes amusing, but always interesting. Some days ago over in Stanly County the County Superintendent and a representative of the State Department met a number of citizens for the purpose of discussing raising money among the people to apply on a new Rosenwald schoolhouse. The maor effort was to induce the trustees of the church to make the county a deed for three or four acres of the large church site. One of the older members of the party was heartily in favor of anything that would mean a better school. He gave the following reasons for his interest.

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The good old days had passed and it was necessary to build good schools and good churches to, in a way, make up for things that the younger generation was missing. When he was a boy his varied diet consisted of turkey, wild and tame, chickens, pigs, lamb, all kinds of wild fowls, fish, oysters and clams and other things "not to be mentioned". (He smacked his lips then.)

When he had finished his story all of us realized that he was more or less in earnest. Incidentally, enough of the church property will be deeded to make a good school site.

The Jeanes teacher of Halifax County tells the following story.

"I hope we are not too proud of our building. But if you will allow me to give you the history at our school you may be able to understand." He told me about how, i in 1902 they put up a log house and with $13.00 they received from the County put a floor and two windows in it. After a few years it became too small, so with $30.00 recieved from the County aqn abandoned logging camp was purchased, torn down and a small one room building erected. Three years ago they became interested in the Rosenwald Fund and raised $500.00. Now they have one of the finest buildings in the County.

The following story comes from Fender County, a member of the School Committee telling the steps taken to get a new school

1. All got up a petition to the County Board of Education to make some changes in our district. This they gladly did.

2. Several of the patrons and friends paid in some money to the amount of $13.00. We then had entertainments until that amount was increased to $100.00 This amount was then turned over to the County Board of Education.

3. The parents and patrons set out to get some material to assist in erecting the building. Some seven or eight thousand feet of material were placed on the school site.

4. During the year 1921 the County Board of Education let the contract for erecting the building.

5. In January 1922 the building was dedicated. We then had an opening at our new building to raise money to [begin crossed out]keep[end crossed out] help purchase fixtures for the class rooms. Many interested pesons were present.