Exhibition on display locally through the end of the month

CELINA-The Clay County Museum is hosting a new traveling exhibit called “Building a Bright Future: Black Communities and Rosenwald Schools in Tennessee” now through December 29.

Created by the Tennessee State Museum in partnership with The John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library at Fisk University, the exhibition traces the history of education for Black Tennesseans from the Reconstruction period, through the development of the Rosenwald program, and into the present day.

“We are honored to be the first museum in the Upper Cumberland to display the Rosenwald Schools exhibit,” local museum director Beverly Hollifield said.  “It is especially important to our community as we have a Rosenwald School in Clay County. 

“Additionally, we had the opportunity to interview Mr. Bobby Bartlett, who attended and later taught at the Rosenwald School in Clay County.  Stop by to see the exhibit and listen to Mr. Bartlett’s interview.”

The traveling exhibition on display the Clay County Museum consists of five two-sided panels and includes the engaging stories of alumni and community members from 16 different Rosenwald Schools in Tennessee.

What are commonly referred to as Rosenwald Schools were the result of an initial partnership between Sears, Roebuck, and Co. president Julius Rosenwald, Tuskegee Institute president Booker T. Washington, and Black Communities throughout the South.

Between 1912-1937 that partnership resulted in the construction of almost 5,000 schools for Black children across 15 southern states, including 354 in Tennessee. 

Rosenwald schools drove improvement in Black educational attainment and helped educate the generation who became leaders of the Civil Rights movement.