A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed
Andrew Feiler
University of Georgia Press
Born to Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company, the world’s largest retailer. Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington became the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with black communities across the segregated South to build public schools for African American children. This watershed moment in the history of philanthropy―one of the earliest collaborations between Jews and African Americans―drove dramatic improvement in African American educational attainment and fostered the generation who became the leaders and foot soldiers of the civil rights movement.