Prince George's family recounts role in building historic Rosenwald school for blacks

Much has been written about how Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, president of retailer Sears Roebuck and Co., teamed up with Booker T. Washington, a black educator, in the 1920s and 1930s to provide seed money to start more than 5,000 schools for black students in the segregated South.

But less is known about the thousands of local families who contributed land, money and labor that also brought those schools to life, including Ridgeley Rosenwald School off Central Avenue in Capitol Heights that opened in 1927, says La Verne Gray of Baltimore, whose grandmother, Mary Eliza Dyson Ridgley, sold two acres of her land at below market price for the school’s construction.

La Verne Gray and her mother, Mildred Gray of Mitchellville, spoke during a panel discussion about the Rosenwald schools Monday at the South Bowie Community Center to help mark Black History Month. Exhibits and talks about the schools, considered state-of-the-art in their day for their standardized design and banks of windows to let light in, will also be held at several other community centers in the county before the end of the month.

“I think there was a spirt there [in the community], but I think Julius Rosenwald enhanced the spirt that you must do something yourself to get an education,” said Mildred Gray. “I think it made me want to see more and better.”