COOK FOUNDATION AWARDS $75,000 MATCHING GRANT TO THE HISTORIC WOODVILLE ROSENWALD SCHOOL FOUNDATION

(Gloucester, VA) The Cook Foundation is pleased to announce the awarding of a $75,000 matching to Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation to complete the interior restoration of the historical school.

“The Woodville School is not only a historic site, but with the leadership of the Woodville Rosenwald Foundation, it will again become a cultural center in Gloucester, Virginia. The Cook Foundation is pleased to support the restoration and preservation of the interior. The Woodville School and the foundation that supports it are critical to preserving history and a sense of wholeness within our community,” said Adrianne Joseph, Founder, and Chair of The Cook Foundation.

Built in 1923, the school replaced an earlier school at the same site. Integral to the community was the nexus between the Rosenwald Fund and African American leadership from Thomas Calhoun Walker, better known as TC Walker, who was enslaved at birth but became a lawyer and community leader in Virginia. Walker is credited for bringing six Rosenwald schools to Gloucester. Walker’s relationship with Booker T. Washington fostered access to education and vocational training and necessary community building within and for the African American population. The Woodville School represents a unique time and place in American history and has earned consideration as a part of the proposed Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park which will honor the connection between Jewish and African American history.

We are eager to foster the continuation of both Rosenwald’s legacy and the African American community here in Gloucester that persevered despite the systemic challenges they faced.

Michael Blakey, Ph.D., Chair of the Woodville School Scholars Committee and member of the board, is widely known for his expertise in engaging descendant communities.  He is the National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at William and Mary. Blakey said: "Memory is essential to who and what we are: fond memory, critical memory, reminiscence.  Museums serve memory with physical objects that demonstrate its details, just as the Woodville Rosenwald School resonates with the educational memories of a whole community.  We are encouraging the living descendants of African American education in Gloucester to reach back and fetch their memories in a conversation with scholars about the past and its impact on the present and future."