Thank you, Mr. Rosenwald
Presented by Susan Webb, historical interpreter
The Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society is happy to announce that Ms. Susan Webb will be the speaker at this month’s general membership meeting. Using photographs, documented interviews, historical artifacts, audience participation of authentic recitation lessons and tales of early American education, America’s Traveling Schoolmarm will transport you to the legacy of Julius Rosenwald and the schools he helped build in the back roads of Alabama. Julius Rosenwald, the early 20th-century president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, was a German-Jewish immigrant, philanthropist and trustee of Tuskegee Institute. From 1912 until 1932, his generous caring and compassion for the education of 663,615 African-American children helped blanket 15 Southern states with over 5,300 school buildings, 407 of which were built in Alabama. His collaboration with Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, and grassroots community efforts resulted in a program which constructed schoolhouses, teacher homes and industrial high schools across the South. By 1928, one in every five African-American rural schools in the South was a Rosenwald school. Makeshift classrooms in run-down shanties and dusty church basements were replaced with well-constructed and carefully planned Rosenwald school buildings. Today, through the efforts of local residents, the National Trust of Historic Preservation, and generous corporate contributions, many Rosenwald schools are being restored in southern communities, including Notasulga, Greensboro, Midway, and Fredonia, Alabama.
Susan Webb, early American school historian, has become America’s Traveling Schoolmarm. Having lived in areas of the country steeped in the history of country schooling, Susan has developed a passion for the study of American education. Her 20 years as a classroom teacher, her background in theatrical presentation, and over a decade of early-American education research prompted her to develop her entertaining and unique, yet informative, programs. These ventures have transported her to libraries, universities, conference sites, historical societies and museums across the United States. From these journeys she has collected a small library of antique schoolbooks and an array of historical school artifacts. Susan has set foot in countless historically restored country schools throughout the country to engage audiences in school reenactments, utilizing her book Country School Copybook and other publications she has written: Ready for Reenactment?, School Days Lessons, Masterful McGuffey, and My One-Room School Copybook.
Members of the Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society and the general public are invited to attend the program in the Fredonia Community Center (formerly the Fredonia School House) in Fredonia, Alabama, Sunday July 28, 2019, 3:00 p.m. EDT.