FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2007
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834

National Trust Staff to Speak Saturday on the Rosenwald Schools for Rural Black Children in the Early 1900s

Denise Alexander, Program Officer for the Southwest Region of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will appear in Galveston Saturday to discuss the history of the Rosenwald Schools, and the National Trust’s initiative to save this vanishing part of the South’s history. Her presentation will take place at 9 a.m. at Galveston Historical Foundation’s Salvage Warehouse as part of Galveston Historical Foundation’s Fall Demonstration Class series.

The Rosenwald school fund for African American education, which built 464 schools in Texas alone, provided standardized plans for teacher residences (above) as well as for modest school buildings. Courtesy, National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck & Co., saw the need for proper schoolhouses for African American children, and established a fund that built thousands of schools from Maryland to Texas. Local examples include West Columbia and Jasper, Texas, among 464 schools built in Texas by the fund.

Location: Sealy Garage (GHF’s Salvage Warehouse), 908 23rd Street. Seating may be limited, so reservations are suggested. Admission is $10 for GHF members and $12 for non-members. A link to the list of GHF’s fall series of classes, and a reservation form, can be found at www.galvestonhistory.org.

For more information, contact Matt Farragher, Preservation Services Project Coordinator, at 409-765-7834.