From above, it seems ordinary: a simple white house an hour northwest of Atlanta. But when the Noble Hill school was constructed nearly a century ago, it was revolutionary.
Marian Coleman and four generations of her family were educated at the school — one of the thousands built between 1912 and 1937 that transformed African-American education in the rural South.
“We weren’t really free to do, or to think that we could accomplish more,” she told CBS News’ Michelle Miller. “But when we were able to get the school, and this made the foundation so we could really believe in ourselves. And the teachers helped us to know that we were able to move forward now.”
The institutions became known as Rosenwald schools, named after wealthy industrialist Julius Rosenwald – the president of retail giant Sears. They provided an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of poor African Americans to be educated, and their construction has been called one of the most effective philanthropic endeavors of the 20th century.
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