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Hopewell Rosenwald School after construction in 1926-1927 school year. The building adjacent to the school is Hopewell Baptist Church. Photo found in Rosenwald Fund Card File Database, Fisk University Special Collections. |
Between 2008 and 2010, I researched the last remaining Rosenwald School in McCormick County, South Carolina. I was lucky enough to meet a former student, Georgia Collier-Scott, who was very active in preserving the school-- which was built near the site of the old school and adjacent to Hopewell Baptist. Hopewell Rosenwald was an important additon to a rural community greatly in need. Collier-Scott was a student at the old schoolhouse as well as the new-- and she could still recall, with great clarity, the run-down condition of the old school, also called Hopewell:
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Collier-Scott as a young girl.
Courtesy of Collier-Scott.
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“Hopewell school, as I remember it was a one room wood structure with
one door facing what was then the main highway…with a window on each side
facing each other, and a window in the back. It was not sealed, wooden benches
served as seats for the students, and a wood burning stove furnished heat for
the room. Three ten-inch boards nailed together and painted black, served as
the blackboard…One teacher taught all subjects, and all grade levels.”
When the Rosenwald School Building Program started in 1912, its purpose was to solve issues of inadequate school facilities for rural black communities across the southeast. I'll save the topic of Rosenwald Schools for another post, but I will say that this program was founded in a time when public education funding for African Americans was basically non-existent in South Carolina and most of the southeast. A State Agent for Negro Schools was employed by the South Carolina Department of Education to inspect black schools and to advocate for their improvement. But black education remained an non-issue for many state officials. In my research, it isn't until the 1920's that I see true mention of any concern for the condition of African-American education in State Board of Education records. In a 1927 letter from the State High School Supervisor, J. Daniel, to the State Superintendent of Education, James H. Hope, Daniel stated that he was, "especially anxious to give the negro schools this year a rating and to keep a more accurate check than has heretofore been made." (This was excerpted from my
National Register of Historic Places Nomination for
Hopewell Rosenwald ).
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| From HistorySouth.org |
The state and local school governments largely believed that the black communities should educate their own children and be responsible for a large amount of the funding. When the Rosenwald School Building Program was made available, new school facilities and funding were made available to replace older schools. To several black communities, the Building Program provided a schoolhouse where there had been none. Those communities were using private homes, churches, barns, and veritable shacks as schools. To Collier-Scott, when the Hopewell Rosenwald School was built (at the cost of $400), it wasn't just a new schoolhouse. It was a place where, "for the first time during our elementary school days we were warm and comfortable in school. We were in a learning atmosphere and were able to recieve a good elementary education." Hopewell Rosenwald School was a simple design that conformed to the
One Teacher Community Plan (with small modifications). The schoolhouse contained three rooms: a large classroom, a small library/industrial room, and a storage closet. The large banking windows, common in most Rosewald Plans, were designed to let in the maximum amount of natural light.
Hopewell Rosenwald School was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Today, it is still standing by Hopewell Baptist Church and is used as a community center. After her time at Hopewell, Collier-Scott graduated high school in Augusta, Georgia and attended college. After receiving her M.A., she became a teacher and retired after 37 years. Today, she is active in preserving the history of African-American education in McCormick County and she has created a scholarship fund. Collier-Scott recently was honored with a local award for her philanthropy and community involvement. She firmly believes, even now, that "All that I am and ever hope to be I owe it to Hopewell."
