Rosenwald High School

Rosenwald High School. . , Side 1 , In 1913, Jewish philanthropist and Sears, Roebuck and Company chairman, Julius Rosenwald, joined African American rights activist Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute to help support a project to design and operate schools for black children in the rural South. Rosenwald and his family established the Rosenwald Fund in 1917 for the well-being of mankind; the rural African American school-building program was one of its largest programs. The Bay County School Board and local black community joined forces during the mid-1920s to take advantage of the assistance available to them from the fund to build a school in the Panama City black neighborhood of Shinetown. The fund required school boards to agree to operate such schools and to arrange for matching funds. Black communities were required to raise funds or donate property and labor for the construction of schools. During the 1927-1928 budget year, the Bay County School Board partnered with the local black community to purchase land to build and operate a school under the Rosenwald program. Located at 819 E. 11th Street, the school was built in accordance with the Rosenwald Fund specifications and named Panama City High School. , (Continued on other side), Side 2 , (Continued from other side) , The building served the black community in Panama City as an elementary and high school, and in 1939 graduated its first class of three students. By that year, the school had been renamed in honor of Julius Rosenwald to avoid an identity conflict with the all-white Panama City High School. Enrollment increased to 125 students by 1944. The school continued to grow, and served grades 1 through 12 until a new junior-senior high school was built. Land for the new school was purchased in 1950, and the building was dedicated in 1951. The school was relocated to this campus, and the Rosenwald name was transferred to it. African American students were educated on this site from 1952 to 1967. Many students graduated and went on to further their education. The desegregation of public schools in Bay County began in 1966. Rosenwald was a middle school serving grades 6 through 8 from 1967 to 2009, and then became an alternative high school serving grades 9 through 12. Rosenwald and its alumni continue to be a vital part of the community. , A Florida Heritage Site