by Cieslafdn | Mar 5, 2014 | Film Production
Mazel tov to Steve McQueen and the whole creative team behind 12 Years a Slave. The Ciesla Foundation team is thrilled that the film won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at last night’s Academy Awards and that Lupita Nyong’o was honored as well with the Best Supporting Actress award.
Slavery was the insidious American legacy that Julius Rosenwald responded to in his giving
The significance of this win was best described to me by former D.C. Council Member Charlene Drew Jarvis, who was interviewed about her father, Dr. Charles Drew, for our upcoming documentary, The Rosenwald Schools:
“And the whole membership voted for best picture. Folks are ready to let the tragedy of slavery really pierce their consciousness, and perhaps their consciences.”
by Cieslafdn | Feb 20, 2014 | Film Production
Marian Anderson was one of the most beloved of the Rosenwald grant artists, so we knew we needed a great interview for the film with an expert on her life. We found that expert in Dr. Dwandalyn Reece, curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, who spoke to us a few weeks ago on January 30th. Reece gave us a good background on Anderson and spoke about the timeliness of her Rosenwald grant (you can read more about Anderson’s 1930 trip to Europe on a Rosenwald grant in a previous blog post). Especially poignant was Reece’s description of Anderson as a “reluctant icon.” Anderson became an icon of the period before Civil Rights when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall in 1939 and Anderson instead gave a free concert on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
by Cieslafdn | Feb 19, 2014 | Rosenwald Fund
Two of Julius Rosenwald’s grandchildren paid homage to the illustrious philanthropist by naming their new babies after him. Recently, Julius Kim Varet was born on January 16, 2014 in California. He would be the great-great grandson of Julius Rosenwald.
Julius Kim Varet
On January 15, 2012, Julius Cogburn Deutsch, was born in Washington, D.C. He would be a great-great-great grandson of Julius Rosenwald.
Julius Cogburn Deutsch
by Cieslafdn | Feb 11, 2014 | Film Production, Screenings
This Thursday, February 13th, The Rosenwald Schools filmmaker Aviva Kempner will join Stephanie Deutsch (author of You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South) will join a group of alumni of the Takoma Park Colored School, a Rosenwald School that stood less than a mile from the District of Columbia on Geneva Avenue in Takoma Park. The event, which will include musical selections from the Takoma Park Community Band, a panel discussion, and a screening of Aviva Kempner’s documentary work in progress The Rosenwald Schools will take place at 7:30 on the Thursday at the Takoma Park Community Center Auditorium (7500 Maple Ave).
Click here to read a flier (PDF format) for the event. For more information on the historic school’s funding and layout, you can consult Fisk University’s excellent Rosenwald School database, which has an entry for the Takoma Park school and for 14 other Rosenwald Schools that were built in Montgomery County, MD.
by Cieslafdn | Feb 11, 2014 | School Restorations
A report by a local news station in West Tennessee about a group of alumni from a Rosenwald School in Trenton, Tennessee caught our eye recently, and not just because our crew visited the state (to film at the Cairo Rosenwald School and to do research at Fisk University Special Collections) just last week. Our visit was a great success and will be the subject an upcoming blog post.
According to the report by WBBJ ABC 7, the alumni group has pushed for their alma mater, the Trenton Rosenwald School, to be included on the National Register of Historic Places for over a year. Although the story doesn’t explain why they have as yet been unsuccessful in their campaign for recognition from Tennessee’s Historic Preservation Office, it may be that they have hit a snag on the “integrity” portion of the National Register’s evaluation criteria. In order to be registered, a property should closely resemble its appearance during its period of significance. Judging between Google’s Street View of the property and two historical photographs, (one from Fisk University’s Rosenwald School database and one from the Tennessee State Archives website), its facade appears to be have been substantially altered some time since its construction in the late 1920s.
If anyone has more information about the alumni group’s efforts, please post a comment on our blog. Best of luck to the group in their campaign, as we know recognition of Rosenwald Schools on the National Register can both raise awareness about a community’s history and build momentum to preserve increasingly rare historic treasures.
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