From the September 2, 2015, Chicago Tribune "Film shows Rosenwald's generosity" by Clarence Page.
His is a name from history that not many know. And that is a sad thing. But, he wanted it that way.
Julius Rosenwald never finished high school, but rose to become president and co-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Co., but declined having his name placed on it. He died in 1932 and didn't want his name on the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry although he funded and promoted it.
Even more impressive was his 5,000 schools that he helped fund for black schoolchildren across the South. he didn't want his name on those school either, but today they are called Rosenwald Schools. Clarence Page says that some of his family are alumni of those schools.
There is a new documentary film "Rosenwald" out, which sadly I probably won't get a chance to see.It was made by Aviva Kempner.
Former United States poet laureate Rita Dovem a Rosenwald graduate, has called the Rosenwald Fund "the single most important funding agency for African-American culture in the 20th century." His schools allowed black children to receive the education they might not have gotten in the segregated Jim Crow South.
I know that efforts are underway across the South to save some of the remaining Rosenwald Schools.
A Great Man.
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