by datdudejbal | Mar 9, 2015 | Uncategorized
This has been a very busy week!
On Friday, Howard University and the Washington Jewish Film Festival hosted a screening of The Rosenwald Schools in the School of Communications. In the audience were some Howard faculty, donors, and even former students and family of former students who attended Rosenwald Schools in Maryland, Arkansas, and North Carolina.
Howard has a strong connection with Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald fund, serving as a great benefactor to great historical figures like Ernest Just and Charles R. Drew. It was given over $280,000, more financial assistance than any other black college had been given between 1917 and 1936.
As interviewees and other viewers watched the finished product, they laughed and learned even more than they though they would, commending director Aviva Kempner on a job well done. Following the screening, a panel discussion featuring Kempner, Political Science professor Jay Stewart, and biographer Stephanie Deutsch who answered several questions using knowledge from their area of expertise. The panel was insightful to both the audience members and the panelists as they all reviewed history from both research and first-hand experiences.
Several questions were posed, but the most common were how to preserve the history and legacy of Rosenwald Schools in addition to the importance of philanthropy. Siblings who are also Rosenwald alum, Newell Quinton and Alma Hackett, were featured in the film and attended a school in Eastern Shore, Maryland. Making a point to preserve the history of their school, they share their story with their local community and reach out to other students who were a part of the legacy.
Newell Quinton and Alma Hackett speaking during the panel discussion at Howard U
Ultimately, the pivotal role philanthropy and a desire for access to education stayed with each person who viewed the complete film. How rural communities managed to work with JR and local white officials to build a school was beyond amazing and more people need to be exposed to this part of American history.
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by datdudejbal | Feb 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
Abraham Hall
Abraham Hall
Photo Source: www.history.pgparks.com
Built in the late 1880s, Abraham Hall has stood as the “center of social activity” in the black-founded community of Rossville. The Benevolent Sons and Daughters of Abraham, a social welfare society, founded the building. In an article written in the Gazette, the staff at the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation informs the public that they will soon be digitalizing the document archives that tell the history of the building that has been in existence since 1889.
First serving as a church temporarily and then as a school when the Muirkirk Rosenwald School was being built, this center became so much more. It was the location for town hall meetings, a place to hold wedding and baby showers, and a place for adults and children to fellowship. From those moments, artifacts have been collected and are currently on display in the center.
This month Abraham Hall is being honors at Laurel’s Montpelier Arts Center titled “Glancing Back & Looking Forward: 100 years of African American Culture and History in Prince George’s County”.
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by datdudejbal | Feb 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
Next Friday at 2:30pm, The Phillips Collection will be hosting a panel discussion titled, “Jacob Lawrence’s Struggle”. Moderated by UVA Professor of Modern Art and former Phillips senior curator Elizabeth Hutton Turner, this panel will further critique and analyze his Struggle Series, created between 1954 and 1956. It will feature guest panelists from George Mason University, University of Maryland, and the National Museum of African American History. David Driskell, who will be featured in The Rosenwald Schools, is one of those panelists.
Conveniently held during the 39th Black History Month, they will discuss the art’s contribution to social awareness during the Civil Rights Movement. As a Rosenwald grant recipient, Lawrence was given the opportunity to travel to the segregated Jim Crow south and use his experiences as inspiration to create great and memorable that is still observed today.
Jacob Lawrence photographed in the early 1940s
Photo Source: www.uscg.mil
To see the full list of panelists and find more information about Jacob Lawrence and The Phillips Collection, click here.
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by datdudejbal | Feb 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
Recently, The New York Times wrote a review on Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by James McGrath Morris, a biography about an African American woman who broke journalistic barriers by getting out news via the Chicago Defender, “America’s premier black newspaper”. Created in the first half of the 20th Century when blacks did not have much access black newspapers, it was banned in many Southern states.
Pullman porters, men and women who were the underground heroes, transported bundles of the newspapers on various trains going southward to be delivered by hand instead of via the mail. This increased the circulation of the weekly news to over 130,000. As the “pre-eminent black female reporter of the civil rights era”, Payne overcame the obstacles racism presented and wrote about various hot topics in the African-American community such as voter registration drives, adoption by black families, and the Vietnam War.
In the documentary, Representative Danny Davis goes into detail about the Chicago Defender and its influence during the same time that Julius Rosenwald’s philanthropic efforts assisted in the building of Rosenwald schools.
To read more about the Chicago Defender, click here.
Photograph of Ethel Payne
Photo Source: www.google.com
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
by datdudejbal | Feb 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
On Friday February 27th 2015, Rosenwaldwill be screened at Howard University. Founded in 1867, Howard is a historically black university that served as the capstone for many African-Americans to pursue professional careers in the fields of law, medicine and many more during a time when most blacks were only expected to work in education and agriculture. It is also the academic home of several Rosenwald grant recipients.
After the screening, there will be a panel featuring Jay Stewart, Professor of Political Science and Stephanie Deutsch, author of You Need a Schoolhouse, Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South. Admission is FREE. The screening will begin at 11:00am. It will take place in the School of Communications located at 525 Bryant Street NW 20059 on the 3rd Floor in Screening Room West. All are welcome to attend!
Photograph of the Howard University School of Communications
Photo Source: www.howard.edu
Erica Marshall, Winter Intern
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