In 1912, Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, asked Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish Philanthropist and President of Sears, Roebuck & Company, to serve on the board of directors at Tuskegee. Their unique partnership led to the creation of the Rosenwald Fund to support the education of African-American children in the rural South. The fund encouraged collaboration between the African American and White communities, providing seed monies for schools and requiring matching funds from the African American Community, or in-kind labor, and public funds towards construction. 382 Rosenwald schools were built in Virginia between 1917 and 1932. Eight such schools in Fauquier County offered a quality education to untold numbers of African-Americans. Crest Hill, Orleans, Routts Hill and Remington's Piney Ridge were erected using a blue print for a one teacher classroom. Blackwelltown, Greenville and Rectortown's No. 12 were built for two teachers and the County Training School, later named for Rosenwald, was a five-teacher type. Rosenwald was the County's only Black high school 'til students entered the newly erected Wm. C. Taylor High School in 1952.
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