An Evening with the Riley Museum: Rosenwald Schools and Black Education in the South with Dr. Tom Hanchett
Thu, Sep 25
|AC Hotel Tallahassee
Learn about the powerful legacy of Rosenwald Schools and the broader history of Black education in the South. Drawing on decades of research and storytelling, Dr. Hanchett will highlight how community action and philanthropy came together to transform education for generations of African Americans.
Time & Location
Sep 25, 2025, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
AC Hotel Tallahassee, 801 S Gadsden St, Tallahassee, FL 32301, USA
Guests
About the event
Please note:
This lecture will not be held at Parkview as in previous months. Instead, we’ll gather at the AC Hotel, conveniently located in the same complex.
During the 1910s through the 1930s, an extraordinary philanthropic partnership reshaped educational opportunity for African Americans in the segregated South. Julius Rosenwald, a key entrepreneur in the growth of Sears-Roebuck, provided seed grants and innovative architectural plans for school buildings. Local Black communities, eager to invest in the futures of their children, more than matched those grants with fundraising and volunteer labor. Together, this collaboration resulted in the construction of more than 5,000 schools across the region—including 140 in Florida alone. Dr. Hanchett will share compelling stories of how these schools came to life and the transformative impact they had on generations of students. His pioneering 1988 article, “Rosenwald Schools and Black Education in North Carolina,” helped spark the nationwide rediscovery of this important chapter…
