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The legacy of Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald
RAAC presents:The legacy of Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald
Writer and critic Stephanie Deutsch shares her research and writings about the fascinating collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald at a special Friday at the Library series on Oct. 10 at 8 p.m., sponsored by the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and Community.
A regular reviewer of fiction and non-fiction for the Washington Times, Deutsch, who also has written for The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, and The Millions blog, delves into the story of these two self-made men from disparate backgrounds who changed the face of education for African Americans in rural communities across the country. Rosenwald, born the son of Jewish German immigrants in Illinois, eventually became part-owner and president of Sears and Roebuck and a major philanthropist. Washington, born into slavery on a tobacco farm in southern Virginia, fought for his own education and, as head of the Tuskegee Institute, became the nation’s foremost black educator.
Together they gave birth to the Rosenwald school project which helped construct 4,977 schools to educate African American students throughout the south, of which the Scrabble School in Rappahannock County was one.
The story Deutsch has to tell is of particular interest in Rappahannock because of current efforts to restore and preserve the Scrabble School as both an historical site and as a Senior Center for the county. Thanks to support from the county and many donors, the renovation project is due to start next month.
Initially attracted to the story of Rosenwald and Washington for family reasons (she is married to a Rosenwald great-grandson), Deutsch has found in it a prism for her own consideration of both American history and of philanthropy. “As the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, I spent my high school years in a French lycée; I was ignorant of the conditions surrounding the creation of the Rosenwald schools and was just vaguely familiar with the towering and controversial reputation of Booker T. Washington. As my interest in the subject quickened, I spoke with family members, read and studied and made repeated visits to do research in Chicago and Tuskegee. In the fall of 2005 I worked on the book as a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.”
Educated at Brown University (B.A. Russian Studies) and Harvard (M.A. Soviet Union Area Studies), Deutsch is chairman of the grants committee of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, which gives away over $200,000 a year in small grants. This has given her ample opportunity to appreciate Rosenwald’s observation that it is often harder to give money away wisely than to make it.
Deutsch lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, a retired television director (he directed the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer for many years) and is the mother of three grown children – two of whom, she is proud to note, majored in U.S. history.
Deutsch edited and wrote the introduction to Capitol Hill: Beyond the Monuments, a book of photographs published in 1996 by the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.
Please join RAAC at the Rappahannock County Library to learn more about the “back story” behind Scrabble and the other Rosenwald schools.
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