The Rosenwald Rural School Building Program B
ESIDES leading Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1908 to 1932, first as the company’s president and then as the chairman of the board of directors, Julius Rosenwald was also a major American philan- thropist. Rosenwald established a philanthropic fund, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, in 1917 and initially endowed it with $20 million (about $350 million dollars in today’s dollars). Although Rosenwald eventually gave millions of dollars to various entities, such as universities, hospitals, and relief agencies, one of his greatest philanthropic endeavors involved estab- lishing a program to build new rural schools in fifteen states in the South in poor areas occupied mostly by African Americans.
At first administered by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the Rosenwald Rural School Building Program lasted from 1917 to 1932 and matched donations of land and labor made by the African-American communities it was created to serve. During its fifteen-year history, the program spent more than $28.4 million on nearly five thousand new schools, associated buildings, and teachers’ homes. When completed, these schools served more than 663,000 students. —JS
such as the fulfillment of orders, irked the highly organized Rosenwald, who valued sound business structure and discipline. Still, there was no denying that Sears’ methods produced results.
Twentieth-Century Expansion
Very quickly, the rapidly growing company found itself in need of more space to handle all the orders Sears’ ads were generating, and in 1905, largely as a result of Rosenwald’s initiative, construction began on a forty-acre, $5.6 million (about $148 million in today’s dollars) headquarters and plant on the west side of Chicago. When the three-million-square-foot facility opened in 1906, it was the larg- est business building in the world and boasted its own power plant, hospital, and volunteer fire department.
To help raise the capital required to build this new campus, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was forced to go public in 1906. Many Wall Street investors, however, were leery of what they saw as Richard Sears’ reckless approach to business and balked at getting involved with the company. Aware of investors’ reservations about him and feeling that he was obstructing the company’s progress, Sears resigned as president of the company in 1908.
It is ironic that Richard Sears’ sales abilities, which had made Sears, Roebuck and Co. wildly successful, eventually led to his departure from the company. After stepping down as president, Sears was appointed chairman of the board of directors, but he eventually severed his ties to the company he had cofounded and resigned as chairman of the board in 1913. Richard W. Sears died a hugely wealthy man in 1914.
From that time, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was run with admirable skill by Julius Rosenwald. Under his able leadership, the company thrived, hitting numerous milestones. From the beginning of Rosenwald’s time at the company’s helm in 1908 to near the end of
70 M A Y 2 0 1 3
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93