Carter-Parramore High Alumni Scholarship Fund, Inc. 3415 West Lake Mary Blvd., Unit 952528, Lake Mary, FL 32795
August 29, 2022
Dr. Dorothy Canter, President Rosenwald Park Campaign 19 Maplewood Park Court Bethesda, MD 20814
Dear Dr. Canter:
I am writing this letter on behalf of the Carter-Parramore High Alumni Scholarship Fund, Inc. to inform the Rosenwald Padc Campaign that we officially support the creation of the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park. During the 1920s, there were seven Rosenwald Schools in Gadsden County, FL. Gadsden County is a farm-based community located in Florida's panhandle. These seven schools were in the towns of Chattahoochee, Greensboro [Salem Elementary], Gretna, Midway, Oak Grove, and Quincy [Shiloh Elementary] & [Dunbar High School--which became undersized by 100+ seats and was sold by the School Board to make way for Stevens High School]. These schools served as Gadsden County's first physical schools for its Black youth. However, this process started ~55 years after the Civil Warf Carter-Parramore High School opened in 1955, replacing Stevens High School as the county's high school for Black youth. The Carter-Parramore High Alumni Scholarship Fund, Inc. is a 50l(c)3 organization launched in 2021 to solicit funds and provide scholarships to gifted Gadsden County High School graduates heading off to college.
The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald helped make Sears, Roebuck & Company into the retailing powerhouse of the early twentieth century and became wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. He contributed significantly to our nation through his transformative philanthropy, particularly helping to fund ~5,000 Rosenwald Schools in 15 Southern States. He partnered with Booker T. Washington and the local African American communities who thirsted for education for their children to make the schools a reality. Congressman John Lewis and poet Maya Angelou were renowned graduates of Rosenwald Schools.
The Julius Rosenwald Fund provided fellowships to ~900 incredibly talented people, mainly at the start of their careers, two-thirds of whom were African Americans. They included Ralph Bunche, Dr. Charles Drew, Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Jacob Lawrence, and Gordon Parks. The Fund donated to a number of HBCUs, including Tuskegee, Howard, Dillard and Fisk Universities and Morehouse College.
The Fund also provided early support for the NAACP, which helped lead to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case before the Supreme Court. Rosenwald contributed to numerous Jewish charities and served on the board of Jane Addams' Hull House for 20 years. And he was the founding donor for Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. He truly exemplified social justice.
Now more than ever the legacy of Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools needs to be preserved. The planned 1-fational Historical Park will be an important enhancement to the National Park System. It will be the first National Park to commemorate the life and legacy of a Jewish American and tell a little known but key aspect of early twentieth century African American history. Thanks for your efforts toward the Rosenwald Park Campaign.
Yours truly,
Dr. James L. Milton
Treasurer
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