Recently, I interviewed the subject of my new film project, a woman who is about to turn 90. I have interviewed her several times in the past, but for this new film I wanted to start fresh. What I learned impressed me more than ever, and reinforced the depth of African Americans' historical commitment to education.
My friend's grandmother was born a slave and never learned to read, yet she pushed her children and grandchildren relentlessly to get an education. "Put something in your head" she told them over and over "and no one can take it from you."
It is in this context we have to understand Rosenwald schools and our students' heritage. Some scholars have criticized Rosenwald school builders for being too accomodationist, or (wittingly or not) for advancing a type of education designed to keep African Americans down. What puzzles me is, why do these critics not see the complexity and craftiness of Booker T. Washington's response? Once someone has learned to read and speak, no one can control his or her ideas. They called Washington "The Wizard of Tuskegee" for good reason. Operating in the deep South, he could not afford to advocate openly for integration, yet the school building program that he and Rosenwald founded gave literacy and a ladder to hundreds of thousands of African Americans.
