Echoes of The Sandhills

Series 3 - Echo 4 - A New Century, A New Momentum, 1900–1940

From Makeshift Classrooms to Rosenwald Schools: Expanding Black Education in the Sandhills

By the turn of the 20th century, Black education in the Sandhills had survived its most fragile years. The brush arbors, church classrooms, cabins, barns, and one-room schools of Reconstruction were never meant to be permanent, but they had done their work. They produced readers, teachers, ministers, farmers, tradespeople, and parents who believed deeply that education was not optional but essential.

As the new century began, Black communities across Lee, Moore, Harnett, and Cumberland counties turned their attention from access to advancement. The question was no longer whether children would be educated, but how far that education could take them.

From Meager Schools to Regional Normal Schools

Early Black schools in the Sandhills were community-built and community-sustained, but they faced serious limitations. Buildings were small and aging, school terms were short, and teachers often lacked formal training. In response, African American leaders championed Normal schools, institutions dedicated to training Black teachers who could return to rural communities better prepared and better equipped.

Howard Grammar School in Fayetteville had already demonstrated the power of this model. Its successor, Howard Normal School (later Fayetteville State University), became a regional anchor, supplying trained teachers to surrounding counties. Graduates spread outward into Lee, Moore, Harnett, and Cumberland counties, strengthening existing schools and raising expectations for what Black education could look like.

Yet even with trained teachers, many rural schools remained housed in buildings that were unsafe, overcrowded, or unsuitable for modern instruction. What communities needed next were better schools and the resources to build them.

The Rosenwald Vision: Partnership, Not Charity

That opportunity arrived through the Julius Rosenwald Fund, established in 1917 by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald in partnership with Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute. The goal of the Rosenwald program was clear and radical for its time:

To improve rural Black education by building durable, well-designed schools through shared investment between Black communities, local governments, and private philanthropy.

Rosenwald schools were never “free.” Communities had to contribute land, labor, and money. Counties had to agree to support teachers and maintenance. The Fund provided architectural plans, oversight, and matching funds, but the schools belonged to the people who built them.

Between 1913 and 1938, more than 5,000 Rosenwald schools, teacher’s homes, and libraries were constructed across the South, including dozens throughout the Sandhills region.

Rosenwald Schools in the Sandhills Region <--click to view

Cumberland County

Cumberland County became one of the most active participants in the Rosenwald program. Rural Black communities petitioned for schools that replaced aging one-room structures with light-filled buildings featuring multiple classrooms, cloakrooms, and industrial spaces. These schools often became community centers, hosting meetings, programs, and adult education classes.

Harnett County

In Harnett County, Rosenwald schools built upon a long tradition of land donations and cooperative building. Families who had once erected brush schools now raised funds, hauled lumber, and provided skilled labor to meet Rosenwald requirements. The result was a network of stronger schools that served children from wide rural areas.

Moore County

Moore County’s Rosenwald schools reflected both agricultural and industrial Black communities. As Pinehurst expanded and rural labor shifted, Rosenwald schools offered stability and places where children could receive consistent instruction despite economic change.

Lee County

After its formation in 1907, Lee County quickly embraced Rosenwald construction as a way to modernize its Black school system. Schools built during this era replaced earlier subscription schools and helped standardize education across the county.

Spotlight: The Manchester Rosenwald School (Cumberland County)

Among Cumberland County’s Rosenwald schools was the Manchester School, built to serve a growing rural Black population northwest of Fayetteville. While official records are limited, surviving correspondence between Professor Charles E. Hunter, the school’s principal, and W. F. Credle, supervisor for the Rosenwald Fund, offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the process.

The letters speak to:

• the difficulty of raising local matching funds

• concerns about construction costs and materials

• enrollment pressures and overcrowding

• the pride the community took in meeting Rosenwald standards

  
  

In one exchange, the principal emphasized not only the need for the building but the community’s determination to sustain it. The school was more than a structure, it was evidence that the community had met every requirement placed before it.

The Manchester School also shared a physical and institutional connection with Bethel A.M.E. Zion Church. Correspondence associated with the school lists its address as P.O. Box 255, Manchester, North Carolina. Today, Bethel A.M.E. Zion Church stands at 255 Vass Road, Spring Lake, North Carolina, on the same site where the school once operated. While rural postal designations changed over time, the shared number reflects continuity of place and purpose. Oral history further indicates that after the school building was destroyed by fire, classes continued in the church, reinforcing Bethel’s long-standing role as both a spiritual and educational center for the Manchester community.

Like many Rosenwald schools, Manchester stood as a symbol of progress: orderly, permanent, and designed for learning. Even where records fall silent, the correspondence confirms what oral history has long held true—this school existed because the people demanded it and worked for it.

The principles behind the Rosenwald program were shaped by a clear-eyed awareness of American hypocrisy. Julius Rosenwald himself acknowledged the contradiction between national ideals and lived reality when he observed:

“We like to look down on the Russians because of the way they treat the Jews, and yet we turn around, and the way we treat our African-Americans is not much better.” ('Schoolhouse': Rosenwald Schools In The South : NPR)

What Rosenwald Schools Changed

Rosenwald schools transformed Black education in the Sandhills by:

• extending school terms

• improving teacher retention

• creating safer, healthier learning environments

• fostering pride and ownership within communities

• linking rural schools to regional and state educational systems

  
  

They did not end inequality. Schools remained segregated and underfunded compared to white schools. But Rosenwald schools marked a turning point—from survival to structure, from improvisation to permanence.

A Bridge to the Future

By 1940, many Rosenwald schools were already shaping second and third generations of students. Children who once learned letters in brush arbors were now grandparents watching their grandchildren attend schools built of brick and timber, with glass windows and blackboards.

The Rosenwald era did not erase the sacrifices of earlier generations, it honored them.

References

• Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives – School construction records and correspondence

• Rosenwald Fund Collection · Rosenwald Fund Collection retrieved from Fisk University

• Tuskegee Institute Records – Rosenwald program administration

• Cumberland County School Board Records, Early 20th Century

• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Reports, 1900–1940

Coming Next — Echo 5

As Rosenwald schools flourished, new challenges emerged: consolidation, transportation, high schools, and the growing push for equalization. Echo 5 will explore how Black education in the Sandhills navigated the mid-20th century—on the road toward desegregation and beyond.