Educating Black Communities
In 1913, educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald devised a matching grant program to help build Black schools in the South. If a rural Black community raised a contribution and the white school board agreed to operate the facility, Rosenwald would contribute cash — usually about one fifth of the total project. Eighteen Rosenwald schools were built in Durham County, the first being Rougemont, which was completed in 1919. Only one of the eighteen schools remain standing today.
While substantive research has been done on the Rosenwald school movement, little information exists on the Jeanes supervising teachers, who were charged with providing industrial education to their students. In 1907, Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker woman, donated one million dollars “for the furthering and fostering of rudimentary education” in small rural Black schools. Although this fund was incorporated as the Negro Rural School Fund, it was typically referred to as the Jeanes Fund. During the first year, the fund provided for the salaries of industrial teachers in schools, summer schools for teachers, and teacher conferences.
Durham’s first Jeanes teacher was hired in 1915. Often functioning as superintendent of the Black schools, the Jeanes teachers worked to improve education, public health, and general living conditions for their students and community. They raised the quality of teaching, pushed for resources from the school board, raised money from the community, and built schools. Mostly female and all Black, the Jeanes teachers’ voices were marginalized so that, in spite of their pioneering work, documentation of them is scant. We know they worked under extremely difficult conditions to make the educational experience of countless rural African Americans better. Beyond tangible improvements to the local schools, the hard work they did in community development set the stage for the next generation’s civil rights activism.
Educating Black Communities
In 1913, educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald devised a matching grant program to help build Black schools in the South. If a rural Black community raised a contribution and the white school board agreed to operate the facility, Rosenwald would contribute cash — usually about one fifth of the total project. Eighteen Rosenwald schools were built in Durham County, the first being Rougemont, which was completed in 1919. Only one of the eighteen schools remain standing today.
While substantive research has been done on the Rosenwald school movement, little information exists on the Jeanes supervising teachers, who were charged with providing industrial education to their students. In 1907, Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker woman, donated one million dollars “for the furthering and fostering of rudimentary education” in small rural Black schools. Although this fund was incorporated as the Negro Rural School Fund, it was typically referred to as the Jeanes Fund. During the first year, the fund provided for the salaries of industrial teachers in schools, summer schools for teachers, and teacher conferences.
Durham’s first Jeanes teacher was hired in 1915. Often functioning as superintendent of the Black schools, the Jeanes teachers worked to improve education, public health, and general living conditions for their students and community. They raised the quality of teaching, pushed for resources from the school board, raised money from the community, and built schools. Mostly female and all Black, the Jeanes teachers’ voices were marginalized so that, in spite of their pioneering work, documentation of them is scant. We know they worked under extremely difficult conditions to make the educational experience of countless rural African Americans better. Beyond tangible improvements to the local schools, the hard work they did in community development set the stage for the next generation’s civil rights activism.
About this Exhibit
This exhibit was originally created in 2010 and grew out of Joanne Abel’s master’s thesis, Persistence and Sacrifice: Durham County's African American Community & Durham's Jeanes Teachers Build Community and Schools, 1900-1930. Joanne’s persistence in digging through libraries and archives throughout North Carolina and the Southeast resulted in a deep, rich trove of information. After perusing Joanne’s thesis and hearing her present her findings in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, Lynn Richardson (Durham County Library’s North Carolina Librarian) and Jill Wagy (Library Web Master) felt that the Collection's users and many others would be delighted to have the opportunity to learn more.
The exhibit could not have been completed without the hard work of North Carolina Collection intern Katie-Rose Repp. Katie-Rose worked diligently to compile all of the information for the exhibit and assisted with the coding of the site.
Contact the North Carolina Collection to learn more.
About this Exhibit
This exhibit was originally created in 2010 and grew out of Joanne Abel’s master’s thesis, Persistence and Sacrifice: Durham County's African American Community & Durham's Jeanes Teachers Build Community and Schools, 1900-1930. Joanne’s persistence in digging through libraries and archives throughout North Carolina and the Southeast resulted in a deep, rich trove of information. After perusing Joanne’s thesis and hearing her present her findings in a program sponsored by the North Carolina Collection, Lynn Richardson (Durham County Library’s North Carolina Librarian) and Jill Wagy (Library Web Master) felt that the Collection's users and many others would be delighted to have the opportunity to learn more.
The exhibit could not have been completed without the hard work of North Carolina Collection intern Katie-Rose Repp. Katie-Rose worked diligently to compile all of the information for the exhibit and assisted with the coding of the site.
Contact the North Carolina Collection to learn more.
Contributors
Joanne Abel, Adult Programming and Humanities Librarian until 2015, earned her bachelor of science degree in education from Georgia Southern College, her master of library science from North Carolina Central University, and her master of arts in liberal studies from Duke University.
Katie-Rose Repp, North Carolina Collection Intern in 2010, earned her bachelor of arts degree in history from Pennsylvania State University and her master of science in library and information science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lynn Richardson, North Carolina Collection Librarian from 2001-2016, earned her bachelor of arts degree in English education and her master of library science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hitoko Ueyama-Burke, Graphic Designer since 2008, earned her bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from the School of Visual Arts, New York.
Jill Wagy, Library Webmaster from 2007-2012, earned her bachelor of science degree in information studies from Florida State University and her master of library science and master of information science from North Carolina Central University.
Exhibit migrated and updated by Jacob Weinick in April 2025.
Contributors
Joanne Abel, Adult Programming and Humanities Librarian until 2015, earned her bachelor of science degree in education from Georgia Southern College, her master of library science from North Carolina Central University, and her master of arts in liberal studies from Duke University.
Katie-Rose Repp, North Carolina Collection Intern in 2010, earned her bachelor of arts degree in history from Pennsylvania State University and her master of science in library and information science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lynn Richardson, North Carolina Collection Librarian from 2001-2016, earned her bachelor of arts degree in English education and her master of library science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hitoko Ueyama-Burke, Graphic Designer since 2008, earned her bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from the School of Visual Arts, New York.
Jill Wagy, Library Webmaster from 2007-2012, earned her bachelor of science degree in information studies from Florida State University and her master of library science and master of information science from North Carolina Central University.
Exhibit migrated and updated by Jacob Weinick in April 2025.
The resources that informed this exhibit, including books, articles, dissertations, periodicals, archival materials, databases, and more. For a complete list of resources, please see the bibliography on pages 126-127 of Persistence and Sacrifice: Durham County’s African American Community and the Jeanes Teachers Build Community and Schools, 1900-1930.
Primary Resources
Anderson, Jean Bradley. Durham County, North Carolina. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.
Brown, Hugh Victor. E-qual-ity Education in North Carolina Among Negroes. Raleigh: Irving-Swain Press, 1964.
Brown, Hugh Victor. A History of the Education of Negroes in North Carolina. Raleigh: Irving-Swain Press, 1961.
Cooke, Dennis Hargrove. The White Superintendent and the Negro Schools in North Carolina. Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1930.
Fairclough, Adam. A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics Of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Hanchett, Thomas W. “The Rosenwald Schools and Black Education in North Carolina.” North Carolina Historical Review LXV: 4, October 1988: 387-425.
Hoffschwelle, Mary S. The Rosenwald Schools of the American South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.
The Jeanes Supervisors: Striving to Educate. 1995. Produced by Vernon F. Clark. Breaking New Ground Productions.
Jones, Lance. The Jeanes Teacher in the United States, 1908-1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937.
Krause, Bonnie J., “We Did Move Mountains!: Lucy Saunders Herring, North Carolina Jeanes Supervisor and African American Educator, 1916-1968.” North Carolina Historical Review LXXX: 2, April 2003: 188-212.
Leloudis, James. Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self and Society in North Carolina, 1880-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Littlefield, Valinda W. I Am Only One, But I Am One. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2003.
Littlefield, Valinda W. "'To Do the Next Needed Thing:' Jeanes Teachers in the Southern United States, 1908-1934." Telling Women’s Lives. Edited by Kathleen Weiler and Sue Middleton. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999: 130-146.
Malczewski, Joan. Northern Philanthropists, the State, and Rural Blacks: The Implementation of Education Reform in North Carolina During the Progressive Era. Ph. D. Dissertation: Columbia University, 2002.
Newbold, N. C. Five North Carolina Negro Educators. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
NASC Interim History Writing Committee: Mildred M. Wilson, Kara Vaughn Jackson, Madie A. Kiney, Susie W. Wheeler, Rebecca Davis, Rebecca A. Crawford, Maggie Forte, Ethel Bell. The Jeanes Story: A Chapter in the History of American Education 1908-1968. Atlanta: Southern Education Foundation, 1979. (All of these authors were Jeanes teachers).
Smith, Alice Brown. Forgotten Foundations: The Role of Jeanes Teachers in Black Education. New York: Vantage Press, 1997.
Walker, Vanessa Siddle. Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1996.
Westin, Richard B. A History of the Durham School System, 1882-1933. Master’s Thesis: Duke University, 1960.
Wright, Arthur D. Negro Rural School Fund (Anne T. Jeanes Foundation) 1907-1933. Washington: Negro Rural School Fund, Inc., 1933.
Periodicals
Durham Morning Herald
Durham Morning Sun
Durham Recorder
Raleigh News and Observer
Archives
Durham County Library, North Carolina Collection; Durham County Board of Education Minutes
North Carolina State Archives, Department of Public Instruction, Division of Negro Education Records
Archives and Special Collections, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, Southern Education Foundation Records
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University Library, William Hane Wannamaker Papers
Treasure Room, James E. Shepard Library, North Carolina Central University
Additional Resources
Alexander, Will Winton. The Slater and Jeanes Funds, an Educator's Approach to a Difficult Social Problem. Washington, DC, 1934.
Ascoli, Peter Max. Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Botsch, Carol Sears. Jeanes Supervisors. University of South Carolina-Aiken Political Science Department.
Eckholm, Erik. “Black Schools Restored as Landmarks.” New York Times, Jan. 14, 2010, A16.
Engelhardt, Elizabeth. "Canning Tomatoes, Growing 'Better and More Prefect Women': The Girls' Tomato Club Movement." Southern Cultures, Winter 2009.
Fisk University Rosenwald Database
Georgia Association of Jeanes Curriculum Directors. 1975. Jeanes Supervision in Georgia Schools: A Guiding Light in Education: A History of the Program from 1908-1975. The Association.
Harris, Narvie, Interviewed by Kathryn Nasstrom, 11 June 1992, P1992-10, Series J. Black and White Women in Atlanta Public Life, Georgia Government Documentation Project, Special Collection and Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta.
Public School Commission of North Carolina. Public Education in North Carolina. New York: General Education Board, 1921.
Seay, Elizabeth Irene. A History of the North Carolina College for Negroes. Master’s thesis: Duke University, 1941.
Slinkard, Thomas Raikes. Public Education in North Carolina During the Depression, 1929-1933. Master’s thesis: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1948.
Southern Oral History Program. The Hayti Spectrum: Documenting Negro Life of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s in Durham, N.C. (archival material)
Southern Education Foundation (SEF). 1916-1931: Jim Crow Segregation.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Course of Study for the Elementary Schools of North Carolina. Raleigh: Division of Supervision, 1923.
Thuesen, Sarah Caroline. Classes of Citizenship: The Culture and Politics of Black Public Education in North Carolina, 1919-1960. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003.
University Commission on Southern Race Questions. Minutes of the University Commission on Southern Race Questions, 1910s.
Virginia Estelle Randolph, Pioneer Educator, 1874-1958, DVD and streaming video, 2009.
Westin, Richard Barry. The State and Segregated Schools: Negro Public Education in North Carolina, 1863-1923. Ph.D. Dissertation: Duke University, 1966.
Winford, Brandon Kyron Lenzie. ‘The Struggle for Freedom Begins Every Morning’: The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs, 1935-1970. Master’s thesis: North CarolinaCentral University, 2007.
Resources
The resources that informed this exhibit, including books, articles, dissertations, periodicals, archival materials, databases, and more. For a complete list of resources, please see the bibliography on pages 126-127 of Persistence and Sacrifice: Durham County’s African American Community and the Jeanes Teachers Build Community and Schools, 1900-1930.
Primary Resources
Anderson, Jean Bradley. Durham County, North Carolina. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.
Brown, Hugh Victor. E-qual-ity Education in North Carolina Among Negroes. Raleigh: Irving-Swain Press, 1964.
Brown, Hugh Victor. A History of the Education of Negroes in North Carolina. Raleigh: Irving-Swain Press, 1961.
Cooke, Dennis Hargrove. The White Superintendent and the Negro Schools in North Carolina. Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1930.
Fairclough, Adam. A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics Of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Hanchett, Thomas W. “The Rosenwald Schools and Black Education in North Carolina.” North Carolina Historical Review LXV: 4, October 1988: 387-425.
Hoffschwelle, Mary S. The Rosenwald Schools of the American South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.
The Jeanes Supervisors: Striving to Educate. 1995. Produced by Vernon F. Clark. Breaking New Ground Productions.
Jones, Lance. The Jeanes Teacher in the United States, 1908-1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937.
Krause, Bonnie J., “We Did Move Mountains!: Lucy Saunders Herring, North Carolina Jeanes Supervisor and African American Educator, 1916-1968.” North Carolina Historical Review LXXX: 2, April 2003: 188-212.
Leloudis, James. Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self and Society in North Carolina, 1880-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Littlefield, Valinda W. I Am Only One, But I Am One. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2003.
Littlefield, Valinda W. "'To Do the Next Needed Thing:' Jeanes Teachers in the Southern United States, 1908-1934." Telling Women’s Lives. Edited by Kathleen Weiler and Sue Middleton. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999: 130-146.
Malczewski, Joan. Northern Philanthropists, the State, and Rural Blacks: The Implementation of Education Reform in North Carolina During the Progressive Era. Ph. D. Dissertation: Columbia University, 2002.
Newbold, N. C. Five North Carolina Negro Educators. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
NASC Interim History Writing Committee: Mildred M. Wilson, Kara Vaughn Jackson, Madie A. Kiney, Susie W. Wheeler, Rebecca Davis, Rebecca A. Crawford, Maggie Forte, Ethel Bell. The Jeanes Story: A Chapter in the History of American Education 1908-1968. Atlanta: Southern Education Foundation, 1979. (All of these authors were Jeanes teachers).
Smith, Alice Brown. Forgotten Foundations: The Role of Jeanes Teachers in Black Education. New York: Vantage Press, 1997.
Walker, Vanessa Siddle. Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1996.
Westin, Richard B. A History of the Durham School System, 1882-1933. Master’s Thesis: Duke University, 1960.
Wright, Arthur D. Negro Rural School Fund (Anne T. Jeanes Foundation) 1907-1933. Washington: Negro Rural School Fund, Inc., 1933.
Periodicals
Durham Morning Herald
Durham Morning Sun
Durham Recorder
Raleigh News and Observer
Archives
Durham County Library, North Carolina Collection; Durham County Board of Education Minutes
North Carolina State Archives, Department of Public Instruction, Division of Negro Education Records
Archives and Special Collections, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, Southern Education Foundation Records
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University Library, William Hane Wannamaker Papers
Treasure Room, James E. Shepard Library, North Carolina Central University
Additional Resources
Alexander, Will Winton. The Slater and Jeanes Funds, an Educator's Approach to a Difficult Social Problem. Washington, DC, 1934.
Ascoli, Peter Max. Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Botsch, Carol Sears. Jeanes Supervisors. University of South Carolina-Aiken Political Science Department.
Eckholm, Erik. “Black Schools Restored as Landmarks.” New York Times, Jan. 14, 2010, A16.
Engelhardt, Elizabeth. "Canning Tomatoes, Growing 'Better and More Prefect Women': The Girls' Tomato Club Movement." Southern Cultures, Winter 2009.
Fisk University Rosenwald Database
Georgia Association of Jeanes Curriculum Directors. 1975. Jeanes Supervision in Georgia Schools: A Guiding Light in Education: A History of the Program from 1908-1975. The Association.
Harris, Narvie, Interviewed by Kathryn Nasstrom, 11 June 1992, P1992-10, Series J. Black and White Women in Atlanta Public Life, Georgia Government Documentation Project, Special Collection and Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta.
Public School Commission of North Carolina. Public Education in North Carolina. New York: General Education Board, 1921.
Seay, Elizabeth Irene. A History of the North Carolina College for Negroes. Master’s thesis: Duke University, 1941.
Slinkard, Thomas Raikes. Public Education in North Carolina During the Depression, 1929-1933. Master’s thesis: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1948.
Southern Oral History Program. The Hayti Spectrum: Documenting Negro Life of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s in Durham, N.C. (archival material)
Southern Education Foundation (SEF). 1916-1931: Jim Crow Segregation.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Course of Study for the Elementary Schools of North Carolina. Raleigh: Division of Supervision, 1923.
Thuesen, Sarah Caroline. Classes of Citizenship: The Culture and Politics of Black Public Education in North Carolina, 1919-1960. Ph.D. Dissertation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003.
University Commission on Southern Race Questions. Minutes of the University Commission on Southern Race Questions, 1910s.
Virginia Estelle Randolph, Pioneer Educator, 1874-1958, DVD and streaming video, 2009.
Westin, Richard Barry. The State and Segregated Schools: Negro Public Education in North Carolina, 1863-1923. Ph.D. Dissertation: Duke University, 1966.
Winford, Brandon Kyron Lenzie. ‘The Struggle for Freedom Begins Every Morning’: The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs, 1935-1970. Master’s thesis: North CarolinaCentral University, 2007.