GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Va. -- Class reunions can unleash a flood of emotions as a wave of nostalgia washes over former students.
At Second Union School in Goochland, a history lesson awaits with Gail Smith, Rush Pace and Calvin Hopkins.
“The education I received here like I said I would place it against any other school that is in the county or in the nation,” Hopkins recalled. “Great memories.”
This 106-year-old building and others like it offered generations of young people a chance to earn an education when opportunities for African Americans to learn the three R's were far and few between.
“We were poor, but we were happy poor,” Smith shared. “Coming to this school was some of the best years of my life.”
Second Union is considered a Rosenwald School. The schools were born after Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute, partnered with Julius Rosenwald, the co-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
The Civil Rights leader worked to educate young African Americans in the Jim Crow South. Rosenwald supported Washington’s efforts financially. In the early 20th century, the Rosenwald Fund provided seed money to help build 5,000 schools across the rural South. Much of the money used to build the schools came from the Black community and counties.
“It was very innovative," Preservation Virginia's Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan said. "You know a Rosenwald school because of the architecture and how it is built. It is complex and simple at the same time. It may sound strange, but I literally can feel the presence of the ancestors.”
Wnn Bryan says about 380 Rosenwald Schools rose in Virginia.
“We did not know about many of these Rosenwald Schools had it not been for the community,” Winn Bryan said.
In total 700,000 girls and boys like 79-year-old Pace attended a Rosenwald School.
“We learned but it was fun being in here,” Pace said.
Following Brown vs. Board of Education, which desegregated classrooms in 1954, many Rosenwald Schools fell into disrepair or were demolished.
“Because at one time this was just a building sitting here. No one knew about it,” Pace explained.
Second Union Rosenwald opened in 1918 and closed in 1959.
The National Trust recently listed the 500 surviving Rosenwald Schools on it most endangered list.
An effort to promote the history of Rosenwald Schools is underway. Second Union Rosenwald School reopened about 20 years ago as a museum where former students become the teachers.
“We had an hour for lunch and we had a bell I said when Ms. Beale rung the bell — you know it is time to come back in this school,” Smith said.
At the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the curtain is rising on a new exhibit. Contemporary pictures of surviving schools nationwide taken by Andrew Feiler complement oral histories from alumni.
Dr. Karen Sherry, the VMHC’s curator of museum collections, says preserving the legacy of these schools and Julius Rosenwald’s vision are paramount.
“The Rosenwald Schools story is one that has been largely hidden in our history. Many people don’t know about the schools,” Sherry said. “It is a chance to experience living history with the people who walked through those doors, who walked through those classrooms.”
The renovated Second Union building in Goochland, which has its original floors, lights and chalkboards, welcomes all.
“We saved the school,” Hopkins acknowledged. “And everyone here in the community realizes we have a jewel here.”
Visitors leave with an education and a new appreciation for a chapter in American history.
“Very happy. This is history,” Pace said. “It touches my heart as a living museum.”
At Second Union Rosenwald School, class is always in session.
“It is very important to still have this building here,” Smith said. “To have Calvin and Rush and me here to come and talk to people about the days we came here. It was some of the best years of our life.
“A Better Life for their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America” runs through April 20, 2025 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Click here to learn more about the Second Union Rosenwald School in Goochland.
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