Evenings Upstairs: McCracken County Julius Rosenwald Schools

Black History Month Presentation Co-sponsored by Kentucky Humanities an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. 

At the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, one of the enduring goals of African Americans was the attainment of an education for their children. Julius Rosenwald, the President of Sears and Roebuck, joined forces with the president of Tuskegee Institute and African American social leader, Booker T. Washington, to secure that educational goal. Between 1917 and 1930, the collaboration between Washington and Rosenwald constructed over 50 schools in Western Kentucky, including four schools in McCracken County. 

Dr. Alicestyne Turley is a historian and educator. 

Dr. Turley has served as Director of the Freedom Stories: Unearthing the Black Heritage of Appalachia for the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN and is currently the 3rd Vice President of the Kentucky Historical Society Governing Board.

Her book, Gospel of Freedom: Black Evangelicals and the Underground Railroad, is the winner of the 2022 Thomas D. Clark Medallion Book Award.