by John Lewis
First published 2021
Julius Rosenwald commands the Sears empire when he meets Booker T. Washington in 1912. Washington runs Tuskegee Institute and dreams of education for every Black child in the South. Together they forge an unlikely alliance that will reshape American education. The Jewish retailer and the former slave launch a school-building program across fifteen states, partnering with Black communities who raise matching funds despite crushing poverty. Their collaboration faces resistance from white supremacists, funding crises, and the complex politics of segregated America. As nearly 5,000 schools rise from Alabama cotton fields to Kentucky mountains, they nurture the generation that will challenge Jim Crow itself. The program transforms not just individual lives but the entire landscape of Black education in America. This partnership between two men from different worlds becomes a beacon of what's possible when vision meets determination in the fight for justice.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, african-american-historical-fiction, american-history
Vibes: inspirational, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, unlikely-allies
Setting: Alabama, Kentucky, South, Tuskegee Institute
Period: 1912
144 pages · Hardcover · University of Georgia Press
Content warnings: racism