Rosenwald Schools and Freedom Colonies

As is the case with many research topics, this event  topic was an offshoot of an earlier exhibit.  During the Emancipation Proclamation Exhibit, a visitor informed me that he personally knew the great-grandson of one of the enslaved people featured in the exhibit.  This particular portion of the exhibit had an actual recording of the voice of formerly enslaved man Uncle Billy McRae describing the Yankees as they marched through Jasper.  It originated from The Library of Congress "Slave Narratives".  The great grandson (Fred McRay) came to the museum a few days later and I was delighted to learn that he was an avid researcher of "Freedom Colonies', founded for freed slaves.  It was with his help and inspiration that I began a research topic which resulted in the location of two "Rosenwald Schools" in Silsbee.

Rosenwald schools were founded for the severely underserved black children in the earliest part of the twentieth century.  A brainchild of Booker T. Washington, he convinced Julious Rosenwald to provide the funding to build the Tuskegee Institute, and later build 500 excellent and cutting edge schools across the South for black children. With Mr. McRay's assistance I was able to prove that two of the 500 Rosenwald Schools in the South were in Silsbee. After pinpointing their location, it was discovered that the original Rosenwald Schools were altered through the years and existed into the 1960's as the black schools in Silsbee before integration.  Mr McRay later gave a lecture in our museum during Black History Month to a diverse group of patrons describing life for local black citizens following emancipation, and how the Freedom Colonies and the Rosenwald Schools provided opportunities for them that provided the earliest steps toward the Civil Rights movement.  I created a permanent exhibit of Silsbee's Rosenwald Schools that has helped our black citizens to be better included in our museum, and has opened opportunities for further collaboration with the community.  As a result of this project, the museum has given assistance to leaders in the black community to form a non-profit, raise funds and create an appropriate monument for the schools, as well as to place a Texas Historic Marker where the Rosenwald Schools stood.