SR_DPI_DNE_Special_Subject_File_B1F15_Equalization_Education_Opportunities_018

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Morrison's prediction has proved the wisdom and the soundness of his leadership. The
school bonds and the road bonds did put our people to work, they did stimulate road
building, school house building in rural areas, and construction amounting to other
millions in cities and small towns. It was a time for development and remarkable ex-
pansion on sound bases. Many additional millions (by counties and cities) were in-
vested in school buildings and equipment, including busses for transportation of
children. White it is going a bit ahead of the story, the officer in charge of bus transportation in North Carolina, advises there are, in 1945, 4980 buses being driven
over modern highways, transporting 342,000 school children daily, nearly 50,000 of
whom are Negroes. [begin handwriting] (45,000 2 yrs ago) [end handwriting]

Fourth - The Negro schools gained tremendously in the decade of the 1920's. This
was a vital part of the upsurge of interest and activity all over the state in education,
agriculture, business, industry, and other lines of work and service in North Carolina.
What has been known and respected throughout the South as the Julius Rosenwald Fund
for aid to schools buildings for Negroes was active here [begin floating handwriting] ^in the state [end floating handwriting] throughout the ten-year period.
A total of 813 school buildings were erected in the state with aid from the Rosenwald
Fund. Most of these schools were small, though some were consolidated schools. They
included about 2500 class rooms, besides in many cases rooms and equipment for teach-
ing sewing, cooking, agriculture, and the like. Also auditoriums, offices for principals, library rooms, rooms for simple health clinics. Space in these buildings accommodated
2538 teachers and 114,210 children. The money [begin floating handwriting] ^to build them [end floating handwriting] came from the following sources:

[column 1]
1. Contributions by Negroes
2. The Rosenwald Fund
3. Public taxation
4. Individual white neighbors
Total

[column 2]
$666,736
713,426
3,707,740
75,140
$5,167,042

[text on left hand side] omit
The Rosenwald school building program included houses for teachers and shops in
addition to school buildings. That Fund also aided in the purchase of 69 busses for
transportation for 33 schools in 23 counties. The total cost was $100,954.72 of which
the Rosenwald Fund contributed $35,334.75. Likewise, the Fund has aided Negro schools