DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the marker in Caldwell County tells it, here's what I know to be true. Julius Rosenwald created the Rosenwald Fund in 1917 to endow new African American schools. That's where this story starts, with a man and a fund and a purpose.
Luling already had a school for its Black students, the Luling Colored School, which had been in operation since 1874. But in 1925, something better arrived. The Rosenwald School opened its doors, built on two and a half acres, and it came ready to work.
Four teachers. Ten grades. A shop, a library, home economics, vocational departments.
This wasn't a bare room with a chalkboard. This was a full institution. P.
W. Tucker stepped in as the first principal, and from that foundation, the school kept building, literally adding buildings to the campus over the years, and building something harder to measure too: high scholastic and extracurricular standards, maintained year after year after year. The school kept that up until it closed in 1966.
Most of the original buildings have been razed since then. But here's the thing that lands with me. That two and a half acres in Luling is still a school campus today, still part of the Luling Independent School District.
The buildings may be gone, but the ground beneath them never stopped being a place for learning. Some things, you just can't raze.
What the marker says
Julius Rosenwald created the Rosenwald fund in 1917 to endow new African American schools. Luling’s Rosenwald school opened in 1925 to replace the Luling Colored School which began operation in 1874. The Rosenwald School employed four teachers for ten grades and was built on 2.5 acres including a shop, library, home economics and vocational departments. P. W. Tucker was the first principal. The school added buildings to the campus and maintained high scholastic and extracurricular standards until it closed in 1966. Though most original buildings have been razed, the site continues to be a school campus of the Luling Independent School District.