On February 20th, Aviva turned out to a screening of Rosenwald at Northumberland High School in Heathsville, Virginia. The screening was teeming with excited individuals, including a large group of Rosenwald school alumni.
However, this was not an average screening. The Heathville event was organized by the Julius Rosenwald School Foundation of Northumberland County- a group that is currently working to repurposed an original Rosenwald school. Before the screening, Aviva received a short tour of the school.
A fascinating, two-story Rosenwald school, the Northumberland collective still has a long way to go in terms of restoration.
You can find out more about how to support the Julius Rosenwald School Foundation of Northumberland County by following them on their Facebook page.
A LECTURE ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MR. JULIUS ROSENWALD
“The Man – The Moments – The Movement”
Building an Educational Legacy in Anne Arundel County
Event Sponsored by:
Presented by:
You are invited to a free public lecture on the life and times of Mr. Julius Rosenwald. History’s foremost leaders in African American education include such celebrated names as Douglas, Washington, Du Bois, and The Little Rock Nine, but also the almost forgotten name of Rosenwald. Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) amassed a fortune serving as president and part owner of Sears Roebuck Company. After becoming friends with famed Tuskegee educator, Booker T. Washington, Rosenwald established a fund to build new, state-of-the-art school buildings for African American children living in the rural South. Between 1917 and 1932, the Julius Rosenwald Fund was responsible for the construction of more than 5,000 new schools in states. In 1940, 23 of Anne Arundel County’s 32 black schools were Rosenwald buildings. The Rosenwald School Building Program advanced African American education in a level unmatched until Brown vs. Board of Education and the subsequent end of segregation.
Guest Speaker: Sherri Marsh Johns
Sherri Marsh Johns has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of architectural research and historic preservation. Her interest in Rosenwald Schools began with her work at Anne Arundel County, Department of Cultural Resources. While there, she researched the County’s Rosenwald Schools and was involved in restoring four of them. In 2006, she founded Retrospect Architectural Research, LLC a consulting firm specializing in historic preservation and cultural resource management issues. Ms. Johns enjoys volunteering her services to nonprofit organizations, and currently serves as executive director of the Smith Island Cultural Center, president of the Lost Towns Project, and is on the board of directors of the Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, Inc.
Great DOOR PRIZES and GIVEAWAYS in the name of Mr. Rosenwald.
RSVP to Lisa Craig, Historic Preservation Division Chief, HistPres@annapolis.gov.
For more information, please contact Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles at aldpindellcharles@annapolis.gov or
410-266-6857 / 410-266-5809
The Life and Times of Mr. Julius
Rosenwald is one in a series of lectures
scheduled for 2016 in celebration of
Preservation50,which recognizes the
50th Anniversary of the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, and is the
reason we have a federally-certified
historic preservation program in Annapolis.
Walter S. Mills-Parole Elementary School PTA
City of Annapolis, Department of Planing and Zoning, Historic
Preservation Division
Retrospect Architectural Research, LLC
Greater Parole Community Association, Historic Preservation
Committee, Co-Chairperson and Consultant, Mrs. Pearl C. Swann
Marriage is difficult, complicated and, unfortunately, they often fail. But the failure of marriage is not a rule and many do last for the long run. David and Thelma Driskell have been married for an impressive 64 years *Applause*. They mention responsibility, dedication and an understanding that marriage isn’t all about romance as the keys to their duration. David is a world recognized leading authority on African American art. He is both a professor and an artist, has curated dozens of shows of his own work and other artists. If you would like to hear David speak, although on a different topic, he is interviewed in the Rosenwald film!
One of the highest symbols of athletic victory is surely the Olympic gold medal. Many know the story of how Jesse Owens, an African American track athlete, won this prestigious icon in front of Hitler and a Germany mobilizing for the most destructive war in human history. The film “Race,” which stars Stephan James as Owens, shows the athletic feats of the man, but also conveys a lesser known facet of the story: the feelings of human brotherhood between Owens and his primary competitor, Germany’s Lutz Long.
Marlene Dortch, granddaughter of Owens, commented on this relationship after a screening of the film and forum in Bowie, Maryland. She tells of how the two men pushed past the (racial) politics and tensions surrounding the 1936 Games and competed to the best of their abilities. Long and Owens wrote letters to each other after the games and kept in touch, including a heartfelt letter from Long right before he was deployed as a soldier in Germany’s army. He died of wounds in a British hospital after the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
The film expresses the bonds that all humans have, despite what the feeling of the moment, political anxieties and even war may try to sever. Dortch sees her grandfather and grandmother as being examples of how to face challenges and maneuver with grace past adversity.
Owens was also a resident of the Michigan Garden Apartments created by Julius Rosenwald that were featured in the film.
The Woodville School is one of the few remaining Rosenwald schools. Erected in 1923, the building is found off of Route 17 in Ordinary, Gloucester County, Virginia. The school Woodville School, contrasts with most remaining Rosenwald schools due to remaining in fairly good condition. This is in part because the school has never been completely abandoned, serving as both a home and storage house for antiques since the school’s closing. Wes Wilson, of the T.C. Walker-Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation, hopes not to restore the school, but to rehabilitate it, saying, “Restoration is to take it back to the way it looked at a point in time. Rehabilitation would be to make it a usable product while retaining as much a historical presence as you could.” The foundation plans to add bathrooms, air conditioning, electricity, and other modern conveniences to allow the building to serve as a center for the community.
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