History Overview

Julius Rosenwald, president and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, donated millions of dollars to have black schools built in the South. By 1920, the Rosenwald Fund in Chicago, established its office for the school building program in Nashville.

At the program’s conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 new black schools, including nearly 900 in North Carolina. The Fund required a money match from N.C., Madison County, and the Long Ridge Community. The Anderson Rosenwald School was built in 1929-1930 in the Long Ridge Community at Mars Hill, NC.

This history overview is a work-in-progress, prepared in support of the Rosenwald School Project’s Planning Committee by its history committee composed of Richard Dillingham, Dan Slagle, chair, and Sarah Hart.