A senate RESOLUTION

TO DECLARE FEBRUARY 28, 2024, AS "ROSENWALD SCHOOL DAY" IN the state of SOUTH CAROLINA.

Whereas, a challenge-grant fund established by Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington, which ran from 1912 to 1923, built schools for African American students across the Southeast, with the resulting schools known as Rosenwald Schools; and

Whereas, four hundred eighty-six Rosenwald Schools were built in South Carolina, at least one in every county, and over one third of African American students in the South attended a Rosenwald School in the first half of the twentieth century; and

Whereas, African American communities in South Carolina matched Rosenwald Fund donations with money raised by the community and with land they owned to ensure education for their children; and

Whereas, Rosenwald Schools also served as community meeting spaces and were an important gathering space for the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina; and

Whereas, despite the integral role Rosenwald Schools played in African American education and the Civil Rights Movement, most buildings have fallen into disrepair or have been demolished, their land and stories being lost with them; and

Whereas, the remaining Rosenwald School buildings and school sites are invaluable cultural resources worthy of being protected, restored, and interpreted for their role in the history of South Carolina and for our posterity.  Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, declare February 28, 2024, as "Rosenwald School Day" in the State of South Carolina.

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