Reinvesting in a Rosenwald School

What happens when a community takes its educational future into its own hands? Funded by local advocates and a generous grant from the Rosenwald Fund, the Allen-White School served the African American community in Whiteville, Tennessee from 1920 until 1974. With thousands of graduates, the school helped shape the lives of multiple generations.

Now, despite a 2012 arson attack, the alumni are working to restore the school buildings to once again serve the community. USC alumna and Tennessee native Brannon Smithwick dug into the stories of this influential school and the efforts to conserve it in her recent thesis Educating Generations: The Legacy and Future of the Allen-White School Campus, A Rosenwald School in Whiteville, Tennessee. Through copious archival research and oral history interviews, Brannon learned firsthand the impact that one place can make.

View Transcript

“Beautifying front of school at Allen-White,” photographed by an unknown Jeanes Fund Supervisor for the Jeanes Monthly Report, April 30, 1939. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Archives, Record Group 273A, Schoolhouse Photos, 1938-1942.
Philanthropist and civic leader Julius Rosenwald (left) and Booker T. Washington (right), educator and political leader at Tuskegee Institute, 22 February 1915. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf1-07303], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Map of Rosenwald schools, 1932. Courtesy of the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library Special Collection, Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives, Fisk University.
Photograph of the recently completed Dorris Hall building, ca. 1920s, photographer unknown, view northeast. Courtesy of the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library Special Collection, Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives, Fisk University.
Cornerstone lists founding trustees of the Hardeman County Training School, 1920. Photo by B. Smithwick, October 2022.
Rosenwald Fund 6-A Plan for a “Six Teacher Community School,” which depicts the H-shape form. Community School Plans, rev. ed., 1928.
Photos of campus buildings including Clift Recreational Hall, the Sandwich Shop, and the new Allen-White Bus, “History of Allen White High School,” 14. Courtesy of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Digital Collections.
Site plan of the Allen-White School during its heightened construction period, ca. 1930-1950. Designed by B. Smithwick using composite 1947 and 1954 base aerial photographs, December 2022.
Photograph of the new elementary school building, unknown photographer, view northeast. Allen-White High School yearbook, The Mirror, 1964. Courtesy of Evelyn C. Robertson Personal Collection.
Dorris Hall as it stood ca. 2006 during the rehabilitation efforts prior to the 2012 arson. Photographed by Carroll Van West, view northeast. Courtesy of the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Historic Preservation, Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University.
Site plan of the abandoned Allen-White School campus, ca. 2022. Designed by B. Smithwick using a Google Earth aerial image, January 2023.
Dorris Hall today, after damage caused by the 2012 arson. Photo by B. Smithwick, October 2022.
1964 elementary school building, view northwest. Photo by B. Smithwick, 2022.
Evelyn C. Robertson. Copyright Ann Smithwick. 2005.
Evelyn Robertson Portrait 2022. Photo by B. Smithwick.
Johnny Shaw Portrait 2022. Photo by B. Smithwick.
Ocie Holmes Portrait 2022. Photo by B. Smithwick.
Group portrait of former Allen-White students in front of Elcanaan Baptist Church, ca. 2005, photographed by Ann Smithwick. Courtesy of Smithwick, Rosenwald Revisited: Wisdom from the Elders photography and oral history project.

Featuring

Brannon Smithwick is a recent graduate with a dual-degree in Heritage Conservation in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning: Design of the Built Environment in the Sol Price School of Public Policy. She is currently interning with the National Housing Services of LA’s (NHS) Historic Home Rehabilitation Program as a heritage conservation technical assistance consulting intern, where she assists residents of the Adams-Normadie HPOZ with Preservation Plan compliance and other historic preservation related inquiries.