Rosenwald-literacy literacy Rosenwald schools, any of roughly 5,000 rural schools for African American students that were built in the American South in the early 20th century. Rosenwald schools were the result of a collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, the president and part owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company. The schools boosted educational attainment and literacy rates in rural Black communities and helped educate the generation who would lead the civil rights movement. Many of the buildings are still intact, and several dozen are included on the National Register of Historic Places—though only a few still operate as schools.