
A Better Life for Their Children Exhibit
Wed January 15 | Sun February 23
$9 – $15
Discover how Rosenwald schools built and uplifted communities, even in the most difficult circumstances.
Born to Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and turned it into the world’s largest retailer of its time. Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington became the founding principal of the Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 these 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 drove dramatic improvement in African American educational achievement and fostered the generation who became leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Of the original 4,978 Rosenwald schools built between 1912 and 1937 across 15 southern and border states, only about 500 survive. While some have been repurposed or remain active schools, many remain unrestored and at risk of collapse. To tell the story of Rosenwald schools, photographer Andrew Feiler drove more than 25,000 miles, photographed 105 schools, and interviewed dozens of former students and teachers, preservationists, and community leaders in the school’s home states, including here in Texas. A Better Life for Their Children includes images that capture these schools as they are today, and through portraits and stories, sheds light on the people who have unique and compelling connections to them.