History Lives On: Interdisciplinary Design to Uplift Rural Communities

Abstract

Starting as a partnership between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald in 1914, a grassroots movement to educate black children grew into over 5000 school buildings throughout the segregated deep south of the United States by 1932. Today, less than 600 of these “Rosenwald School” structures remain nationally, and most are in a state of great decay. These schools represent the education of a new generation of African American thinkers and are considered by economists to have created the African American middle class. This paper will explore the methodologies used to curate, design, and fabricate an exhibit, “History Lives On—Preserving Alabama’s Rosenwald Schools,” aimed at increasing public engagement and awareness of the history of the school building program. The exhibition project serves to educate the public and bring history to life by illustrating the inequities that existed in the educational system of the Jim Crow South.