Durham's Jeanes Teachers Build Community Schools-Joanne Abel

Bernice Bennett welcomes Joanne Abel for a discussion of the  Jeanes Teachers and their community organizing work to build Rosenwald Schools.

Joanne Abel, adult programming and humanities librarian at Durham County Library, earned her bachelor of science degree in education from Georgia Southern College, her master of library science from North Carolina Central University, and her master of arts in liberal studies from Duke University. Joanne Abel’s master’s thesis  was Persistence and Sacrifice:  Durham County's African American Community and Durham's Jeanes Teachers Build Community Schools, 1900-1930. 

In 1907 Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker woman, donated $1,000,000, “for the furthering and fostering of rudimentary education” in small rural Negro schools.  Though this fund was incorporated as the Negro Rural School Fund, it was usually referred to as the Jeanes Fund. Rosenwald devised a matching grant program to help build black schools in the South. If a rural black community raised a contribution and the white school board agreed to operate the facility, Rosenwald would contribute cash – usually about one fifth of the total project.