- [Andrew Feiler] At the heart o who reach across divides of race, religion, and region, and fundamentally change this co And I think for everybody marching in the streets for social justice an progressive change in America, this story speaks to them.

(pensive music) Booker T. Washington, born to slavery in Virginia, goes to Hampton College becomes an educator, and is the founding principal of the historically black college in Tuskegee, Alabama, originally known as Tuskegee Ins Julius Rosenwald is born to Jewish immigrants who had fled religious persecution in Germany and he rises to become the presi of Sears, Roebuck and Company.

These two men meet in 1911 in one of the earliest collabora between African Americans and Je and progressive civic causes, they create this program that becomes known as Rosenwald And from 1912 to 1937, the program builds 4,978 schools across 15 southern and border st and the results are transformati But it remains hidden history and its scope and sweep is largely unknown.