Rosenwald Schools and Their Legacy: Public Lands, Environmental Racism, and Telling Our Stories

Inspired and guided by Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald helped build over 5000 schools in the Southern United States, serving a third of all African American students in the South. His work and philanthropy helped educate and support countless African American leaders, and yet few today know this story. This session explores Rosenwald’s legacy and the movement to create a National Monument to preserve that legacy, while at the same time using this as an example of the broader idea of addressing environmental racism and telling overlooked stories through public lands. It also presents the award-winning short film, Adamah: Faith & Land, an exploration of Jewish values connected to public lands.