PHOTOS: Atlanta photographer documents Rosenwald Schools

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Urged by his friend Booker T. Washington to help the Black community educate its children, Julius Rosenwald, from 1912 to 1932, helped fund the construction of almost 5,000 schools for Black children around the South, schools that lifted generations of African Americans out of poverty. Andrew Feiler has documented those still standing in a new book and exhibit.

Elroy and Sophia Williams hold a photo of Sophia's grandparents, who were born in slavery but accumulated 1,200 acres of farmland and contributed two acres for a Rosenwald school. They are standing in that structure, the former Hopewell School in Bastrop County, Texas, which Elroy is working to preserve Photo: Andrew Feiler

In a 1920s photo copied by Andrew Feiler from the Filson Historical Society, two teachers and 55 students stand in front of the Jefferson Jacob School in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Feiler writes: "Early in the school building program, Booker T. Washington sent Julius Rosenwald photographs like this of schoolchildren and teachers standing proudly in front of their schools. Rosenwald was deeply moved by these images, and they contributed to his decision to expand the initiative." Photo: Andrew Feiler/Filson Historical Society

Julius Rosenwald's photo hangs inside the Noble Hill School in Bartow County, Ga. Rosenwald, president and part-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company, helped build almost 5,000 schools for Black children in the South. Photo: Andrew Feiler

Booker T. Washington, educator, was friends with Julius Rosenwald, and convinced him to join the board of the Tuskegee Institute, and help build schools for Black children in the South. This photo of Washington hangs at the residence of the Tuskegee University president. Photo: Andrew Feiler

The Walnut Cove Colored School in Stokes County, N.C., had become dilapidated and was in danger of demolition when former students came together in 1994 to save it. Its recognition by the National Trust for Historic Places was "seen as a watershed," writes Andrew Feiler, and led to preservation efforts at other Rosenwald schools. Photo: Andrew Feiler

In his photographic quest to capture the surviving Rosenwald schools, sometimes Andrew Feiler was too late. The W.E.B. Du Bois School in Wake County, N.C. had deteriorated to the point of danger, and was demolished shortly before Feiler arrived to take its picture. Photo: Andrew Feiler

Gordon Baker was the PTA president at the Friendship School in Chattahoochee County, Ga., and tried unsuccessfully to convince the school board to preserve the structure. Instead, he arranged to purchase it and has worked to guard the structure from the elements, installing siding directly on the original clapboard and windows, until the time when it can be moved and restored. Photo: Andrew Feiler

The Pleasant Hill School in Cass County, Texas, educated Black children from 1925 to 1964, and then was restored as a community center. The Pleasant Hill Quilters helped raise money for that restoration, and gather at the former school almost every Monday to pursue their art, piecing together scraps of fabric in traditional patterns. Photo: Andrew Feiler

The Walnut Cove Colored School became the Walnut Cove Senior Center, where area visitors can enjoy bingo, card games, Bible study, computer classes, tai chi, line dancing, and yoga. Photo: Andrew Feiler

All but one of the Rosenwald schools were built between 1912 and 1932. Then in 1937, the last school was built, in Warm Springs, Ga., where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt often visited the healing waters. The Eleanor Roosevelt School was built with President Roosevelt's encouragement, and with a substantial donation from the president's own pocket. Photo: Andrew Feiler

Valerie Coleman (left) and Marian Coleman hold a photo of their ancestor Webster Wheeler, who migrated to Detroit, but returned to Cassville, Ga., to help build the Noble Hill School. That school is now a cultural heritage and community center, curated by Valerie Coleman, great-great-great granddaughter of Wheeler. Valerie's aunt, Marian Coleman, is one of the last graduates of Noble Hill. The two are part of the effort to create a National Park unit dedicated to the Rosenwald schools. Photo: Andrew Feiler

The late Congressman John Lewis was educated in a Rosenwald school in Pike County, Ala., and wrote the forward for a new book detailing a photographic history of the schools. Photo: Andrew Feiler

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Elroy and Sophia Williams hold a photo of Sophia's grandparents, who were born in slavery but accumulated 1,200 acres of farmland and contributed two acres for a Rosenwald school. They are standing in that structure, the former Hopewell School in Bastrop County, Texas, which Elroy is working to preserve Photo: Andrew Feiler

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