(Jewish Group) Julius Rosenwald was a champion of Black education
Julius Rosenwald was the organizational genius and President of Sears and Roebuck. Rosenwald felt, as a Jewish American, a deep personal commitment to humanitarian issues. After Sears went public in 1906, Rosenwald, now an immensely wealthy man, faced a dilemma.
Rosenwald said, “I can testify that it is nearly always easier to make $1,000,000 honestly than to dispose of it wisely.”
Yet he did dispose of his money wisely.
Rosenwald began funding special projects, especially YMCA’s for Black Americans. He recognized the particularly difficult circumstances that American Blacks were experiencing when he wrote in 1911,
“The horrors that are due to race prejudice come home to the Jew more forcefully than to others of the white race, on account of the centuries of persecution which they have suffered and still suffer.”
That same year, he was introduced to Booker T. Washington, the Black President of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Their relationship was tentative at first. Washington invited Rosenwald to Tuskegee to see what his vision for Black America was. The visit began a firm, life-long friendship and direction for Rosenwald’s incredible generosity – Black educational opportunity.
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