New Life for Historic Schoolhouse
Restoring a Rosenwald School: The Cross Roads School in Brooks County is on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo credit: Gittel Price
History buffs have another place to add to their bucket list, after Georgia recently added the Cross Roads School in Brooks County to the National Register of Historic Places. Preservationists say the goal is to transform it into a community center.
When the one-story school in the town of Dixie was built nearly 100 years ago, it was the first educational facility for Black children of its kind in the rural area. The two-teacher school served students from first through eighth grade during segregation when Black schools were given limited resources. Despite its small size and deterioration, the building’s original form and plan are intact, including features like blackboards and wood sheathing, doors and windows.
The school is recognized as one of the few remaining examples of a Rosenwald School in Georgia. Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald partnered with educator Booker T. Washington to create the schools, an early example of a public-private partnership. The Rosenwald Fund provided seed grants that had to be matched by funds from the states and local communities and families.
The Rosenwald School effort has been called the most important initiative to advance Black education in the early 20th century. In fact, by 1928, Rosenwald Schools served one-third of the South’s rural Black children and teachers. The schools became obsolete when the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregation in education was unconstitutional. Of the 242 Rosenwald schools built in Georgia, fewer than two dozen have been preserved, including locations in Americus, Smithville, Macon County and a remodeled one in Twiggs County.
