LeBron Scores Like Rosenwald

by | Apr 16, 2019 | Rosenwald Fund

In November 2017, a century after Julius Rosenwald and his family established the Rosenwald Fund in 1917, LeBron James and his family’s fund—The LeBron James Family Foundation—expressed their desire to the Akron school board to build a school specifically aimed at underserved, at-risk children in his beloved childhood neighborhood. Within a year, plans for the new school had been approved and that following school year, the I Promise School opened its doors.

Last week, early results of the I Promise School arrived, and it scored big.

In an article by Erica L. Green on Friday, The New York Times’ reported that 90 percent of the students at LeBron James’ I Promise School met or exceeded individual growth goals in recent district assessments, outpacing students across their Akron, Ohio, district and marking “extraordinary” test-score improvement in less than a year.

According to Green, the third- and fourth-graders at I Promise School “were, by many accounts, considered unredeemable” upon their arrival — “identified as the worst performers in the Akron public schools and branded with behavioral problems.” Now, with the inaugural 240 students finished with Measures of Academic Progress testing, the school is “helping close the achievement gap in Akron.”

The first results are in and living up to the school’s rather fitting name, showing greater promise than most could have conceived at the time of its opening.

“When we first started, people knew I was opening a school for kids. Now people are going to really understand the lack of education they had before they came to our school. People are going to finally understand what goes on behind our doors,” said James.

Much like Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Fund, LeBron James and his family’s foundation provides an excellent template in an education system all too eager to throw money and legislation at private charter schools. Like Rosenwald, James also understands the value of public education and the need for schools to be operated by the district where students actually live and learn.

Rosenwald Court Apartments Restored

Rosenwald Court Apartments Restored

by | Jan 28, 2019 | Rosenwald Fund

In 1919, Julius Rosenwald “devote[d] funding to offset the Black belt housing crisis,” resulting in the building of the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments (nicknamed “the Rosenwald”). Over its history, the apartment buildings were home to Nat “King” Cole, Gwendolyn Brooks, and other African-American legends. The building was closed in 2000 due to a leaky gas pipe, and many believed the apartments would close forever due to its deteriorating physical condition.

Nineteen years later, the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments have a new name, the Rosenwald Court Apartments, and are once again a lively part of the community.

The complex has undergone a $132 million restoration and is allowing new businesses to enter the community, such as Sip and Savor Coffee House. To read more, click here.

From the Washington Post: The overlooked hero behind Sears’s success

From the Washington Post: The overlooked hero behind Sears’s success

by | Jan 22, 2019 | Rosenwald Fund

By Stephanie Deutsch

January 21 at 1:07 PM

Stephanie Deutsch is the author of “You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South.”

“Sears chairman Eddie Lampert’s ESL hedge fund staved off, at least temporarily, the company’s liquidation with a $5.2 billion bid at a bankruptcy auction last week in New York. Creditors of the former department store colossus are challenging the sale in court. The fate of the company’s 425 stores, and with it the jobs of 45,000 employees, is likely to be determined in early February.

Sears’s bankruptcy declaration in October prompted a wave of media coverage focusing on Sears’s mid-20th-century glory days and its roots in a mail-order watch business operated by Richard W. Sears with the help of watch repairer Alvah C. Roebuck. Often overlooked in those nostalgic chronicles was the man who bore much of the responsibility for building the company into a paragon of U.S. retailing. With Sears’s future hanging in the balance, this seems like a good moment to give Julius Rosenwald his due, not least because of how he put his Sears fortune to philanthropic use: partnering with African American communities across the segregated South to build schools.”

To read the full article, visit: wapo.st/2sHShvq

Rosenwald to be Screened at Morehouse’s 2019 College Commemoration

by | Dec 20, 2018 | Rosenwald Fund

Rosenwald will be screened at Morehouse’s 2019 College Commemoration on Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 5:30pm at Morehouse’s Bank of American Auditorium. The Commemoration will honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King.

The late Julian Bond, the inspiration for Rosenwald, was a Morehouse English Department graduate. The department is sponsoring the screening and his son, Atlanta Councilmember at Large Michael Julian Bond, will be in attendance.

We hope many will be able to join Councilmember Bond, Aviva Kempner, and Ethelbert Miller for a discussion after the film. For additional details, please email Lianna Bright at lianna.cieslafdn@gmail.com

Charles White Was a Giant, Even Among the Heroes He Painted

Charles White Was a Giant, Even Among the Heroes He Painted

by | Oct 12, 2018 | Rosenwald Fund

“What a beautiful artist Charles White was. Hand of an angel, eye of a sage. Although White, who died in 1979, is often mentioned today as a teacher and mentor of luminaries like David Hammons and Kerry James Marshall, his is no case of reflected glory. In “Charles White: A Retrospective” at the Museum of Modern Art, from beginning to end, he shines.”

White was a recipient of a Rosenwald Grant. Read more here:https://nyti.ms/2yijHuT