BURGAW — The Pender County Library is partnering with educator and filmmaker Claudia Stack to host a screening of the documentary “Lessons from the Rosenwald Schools.”
The screening, the result of a partnership between the library and Stack’s company, Stack Stories LLC, is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Main Library at 103 S. Cowan St. in Burgaw. All ages are encouraged to view the film and meet the film’s codirectors, Stack and Richard T. Newkirk.
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“Lessons from the Rosenwald Schools” includes footage from hundreds of interviews with alumni and former teachers in which they speak of their experiences at historic African American schools.
The Rosenwald school building program was funded by Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., according to N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Rosenwald partnered with African American educator and activist Booker T. Washington, first working with Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and then forming an independent foundation to manage the school program. After meeting in 1912, the two men built thousands of schools for black students in 15 states, according to the National Park Service.
Architectural plans and matching grants were provided that helped build more than 5,300 schools from Maryland to Texas between the late 1910s and 1932. North Carolina had more than 800 projects, more than any other state, cultural resources continues.
Newkirk, an educator and alumnus of these historic schools, and Stack, who has been documenting African American education heritage since 2003, help viewers understand how these schools fostered a culture of excellence.
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The film reveals practices that were common in Rosenwald schools and other historic African American schools, including many teaching strategies that are validated by current research, and recommends ways that we can move forward together.
