A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America

This beautiful, evocative and moving series of black-and-white photographs by Andrew Feiler memorializes the Rosenwald schools, one of the most quietly successful Black education programs in American history. The Southern program, developed through the partnership of Sears, Roebuck President and noted Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, and education activist and Tuskegee Institute Principal Booker T. Washington, between the years of 1917 and 1932, changed the South, and America, for the better. The Rosenwald schools narrowed the Black-white education gap that plagued Southern and border states, strengthened Black-Jewish relations, paved the way for the civil rights movement, and helped to build a new African American middle class. The exhibit will open at the Museum on November 17th and run through April 21st, 2024.