Political Rewind: Author, Photographer Andrew Feiler On The Legacy Of Rosenwald Schools

Political Rewind

Monday on Political Rewind, a conversation with author and photographer Andrew Feiler about his new book, A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America. The books tells the story of the unique partnership between business executive Julius Rosenwald and educator and public intellectual Booker T. Washington. Together, the pair would help build enduring institutions of public education in Black communities across the South. Rosenwald grew up in a Jewish family and became the leader of one of the largest retailer in the world at the time, Sears, Roebuck & Company. A friendship and partnership with Booker T. Washington led the pair to raise money and support for the building of almost 5,000 schools for African American children between 1917 and 1937. Of the original 4,978 Rosenwald Schools across fifteen southern and border states, only about 500 survive. While some have been repurposed and a handful remain active schools, many remain unrestored and at risk of collapse. To tell this story visually, Andrew Feiler drove more than twenty-five thousand miles, photographed 105 schools, and interviewed dozens of former students, teachers, preservationists, and community leaders in all fifteen of the program states. Feiler, a fifth-generation Georgian, tells the stories of some of the students who went to the schools, including John Lewis and Maya Angelou.