Could more be done? Restoration of school from Lake's segregated past needs funding

A GoFundMe campaign so far has raised $3,600 of the $250,000 needed to make Okahumpka's Rosenwald School a historic landmark with interpretive displays and other enriching amenities.

One of the Rosenwald Schools still stands in the Okahumpka area, and though the Okahumpka Community Club has made progress in its efforts to preserve the historical landmark, efforts are ongoing and the project is still in urgent need of funds.

The Okahumpka Club launched the Rosenwald School Restoration Project launched its campaign a few years ago to rebuild the old school and use it as a historical site with educational and interpretive displays of historical figures.

Plans also call for a new community center on the site, which will serve as a meeting space for visitors.

Why is Okahumpka's Rosenwald School historically significant?

A good many of us adults didn't learn about Rosenwald Schools growing up in our integrated public school classrooms.

Many of us didn't learn that in the early 20th century segregated South, school boards often gave more money to support white schools than black schools. Filling the gaps caused by inequity, the Rosenwald school building program gave African American communities funding to build and supply schools for black students between 1913 and 1932.

Funded by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald — a one time president CEO of Sears Roebuck, who collaborated with Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) — the Rosenwald school building program was a Progressive Era (early 20th century) program that educated 600,000 Black children in the South by the time the final school was built in 1932.

In 1954, Black children were moved out of Rosenwald schools and integrated into previously white-only schoolhouses.

Since then, most Rosenwald Schools have fallen into disrepair. In 2021, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation included the Okahumpka Rosenwald School on its “11 to Save” list of most endangered historic places in Florida.

As a restored and operable historic landmark available for tours and visitors, Okahumpka's Rosenwald School could teach children about a time when all of the area's public school students couldn't sit together because of the color of their skin.

Why help is needed

D'Amico explains that the project qualifies for grants from the Florida Department of State Historical Division's African American Cultural and Heritage grant, and also from the National Trust for Historic Preservations, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

"We don't have enough funding from these two grants to restore the Rosenwald School and build the new community center," he said.

But they need more.

The grant funding cannot be used for specific county code requirements: the construction of driveways, parking and sidewalks. Also, work such as landscaping, landscaped buffers along adjoining properties, tree trimming and removal as needed, as well as required paved parking and a driveway, sidewalks, and stormwater collection and a retention area.

Other items not permitted in the grant guidelines that we will need are items for display, display methods and material, including electronic programming and historical school-related furniture.

D'Amico credited the Board of County Commissioners of Lake County for approving a community development block grant. Private enterprises assisting the project have included RoMac Building Supply, legal assistance from attorney Harley Herman, Southeastern Surveying & Mapping and KMF Architects.

"We failed to get qualifying bids for foundation work almost a year ago," explained Chip D'Amico, Okahumpka Community Club Board member and fundraising chairman, "and we really need help in getting word out about the need for local contractors to get involved with this historic project."

After four years of working toward this major step of the project, "it would be extremely damaging to not only fail to get bids for the work but extremely damaging to the funding grants that have already had to have extensions granted, which might not happen again," D'Amico told the Daily Commercial last week.

"The fact that we have been successful in getting so many major historic preservation agencies and organizations to support this project here in little old Okahumpka is very telling of how important they feel this project truly is."

Perhaps it's just a matter of getting the word out. The Education Foundation of Lake County works to "serve as the connection between our community and public education," according to its mission statement, but has not had any involvement with the restoration project. Representatives from the foundation and Lake County Schools were unavailable for comment due to the county school's spring break.

"The overall project has not changed since the early reporting of what we were trying to accomplish," D'Amico said.

Added D'Amico: "I would love for kids today to see what it was like for African American children to attend a one-room schoolhouse with an outhouse, when, just blocks away, the Okahumpka Consolidated School had six classrooms, a nice stucco exterior with indoor restrooms and a 200-seat auditorium."

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Overlooked local history? Restoring Okahumpka's Rosenwald School