The term "Rosenwald Schools" refers to approximately 5,000 structures built across the Southeast between 1912 and 1932 as part of a matching grant program and initial partnership between Booker T. Washington, the black president of the Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co. At the program's core was the idea that Rosenwald, black and white local community members, and state and local governments would all contribute to raise money to create the school buildings.

In Tennessee, over a nearly 20-year period, 354 schools, nine t...