Sandy Clay Rosenwald School Historical Marker Unveiling Ceremony
Sandy Clay Rosenwald School Historical Marker Unveiling Ceremony
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Your donations will go to support the placement of historic markers in Monroe County.
In collaboration with the 155th anniversary of Mount Union Missionary Baptist Church
Historical Marker Unveiling Ceremony
Saturday, October 25, 2025
12 Noon - 2:00 p.m.
155th Church Anniversary Celebration
Sunday, October 26, 2025
11:45 am
Mount Union Missionary Baptist Church
10259 Highway 25 South
Aberdeen, Mississippi
Rev. Andrew Kelly, Pastor
Vyllorya Evans, Co-Chair Presents to Dulles Rotary
Vyllorya Evans, Co-Chair Presents to Dulles Rotary
Ms. Evans gave a presentation on Friday, May 2, 2025 to the Dulles Rotary. She discussed her journey leading award-winning historical recognition of the legacy of Rosenwald Schools in Monroe County, Mississippi.
Rosenwald School Initiative Receives 2025 Award of Merit
Rosenwald School Initiative Receives 2025 Award of Merit
The Mississippi Historical Society is bestowing an Award of Merit to the Rosenwald School Initiative in Monroe County at its Annual Meeting on March 6-7, 2025 at the Two Mississippi Museums - the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, MS. Ms. Vyllorya Evans, Co-Chair, Doris Dearing Johnson, Co-Chair, and the Prairie Rural Community Development Club (Prairie RCDC) will accept the award. The keynote speaker will be Judge Carlton Reeves of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Wright Thompson will receive the Book of the Year Award for his work, "The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi". The program will also include panel discussions by the Emmet Till Interpretative Center and Millsaps College.
"We are so grateful to the Mississippi Historical Society to uplift our work. This recognition positions us to expand our mission for historical preservation and marker placement. "
- Vyllorya Evans, Co-Chair
"We are so grateful to the Mississippi Historical Society to uplift our work. This recognition positions us to expand our mission for historical preservation and marker placement. "
- Vyllorya Evans, Co-Chair
Vyllorya Andrette Evans, Founding Co-Chair, presented her work with the Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County at Westminster Church DC on Sun., February 16, 2025. At the conclusion of her remarks, Ms. Evans received a standing ovation, attesting to her inspiration and hard work.
Vyllorya Andrette Evans, Founding Co-Chair, presented her work with the Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County at Westminster Church DC on Sun., February 16, 2025. At the conclusion of her remarks, Ms. Evans received a standing ovation, attesting to her inspiration and hard work.
Vyllorya Andrette Evans
Co-Chair, Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County
Doris Dearing Johnson
Co-Chair, Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County
Welcome from Co-Chairs
Welcome from Co-Chairs
Thank you for visiting our website. The Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County is proud to partner with the Prairie Rural Community Development Club (RCDC), the Amory Regional Museum, and the Monroe County Historical Society.
This is a deeply personal journey for me. Both my parents taught at Rosenwald schools — Higgason and Sandy Clay. With the passage of time, it is crucial to preserve the important community history of the educational legacy of Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington. If not for the opportunities at these schools, African Americans in Monroe County would not have had immense opportunities to overcome the barriers of slavery and segregation. Please join me in collecting and elevating this community history.
Contact: monroecountyrosenwald@gmail.com
"Ensuring that our children and their children know about educational institutions in rural communities that changed the lives of people of color. "
- Doris A. Dearing Johnson, Co-Chair
"Ensuring that our children and their children know about educational institutions in rural communities that changed the lives of people of color. "
- Doris A. Dearing Johnson, Co-Chair
Donations to the Rosenwald School Initiative are tax-deductible. Checks can be sent to our fiscal sponsor, Prairie Rural Community Development Club (84-1860387).
On Memo: Rosenwald School Initiative of Monroe County
Attention: Portia Cunningham
Post Office Box 181
Prairie, Mississippi 39756-9735
Rosenwald Screening
Rosenwald Screening
The screening of Rosenwald, an Aviva Kempner film took place at the Elkin Theater in downtown Aberdeen, Mississippi on April 13, 2024. This kick-off event also showcased a short video entitled "Thanksgiving in Prairie Mississippi," the Chandler family success story from their 1978 homecoming.
Rosenwald Film | An Aviva Kempner Site
Explore School Map
Explore School Map
Explore locations of Monroe County Rosenwald Schools. We are working to ensure more precise locations. The following schools are displayed: Sandy Clay, Monroe County Training School (MCTS), Higgason School, Jarmon School, Smithville, Youngs Cross Roads, and Watkins Schools.
Special Guests: Screening of Rosenwald
Special Guests: Screening of Rosenwald
Aviva Kempner
Aviva Kempner
Ms. Kempner is the producer of Rosenwald: The Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities. Rosenwald is the story of how Julius Rosenwald, President of sears, joins forces with Booker T. Washington, President of Tuskegee, to build more than 5,000 schools in the segregated South.
B. Brian Foster, Ph.D.
B. Brian Foster, Ph.D.
Dr. Foster is an ethnographer, multi-medium storyteller working to document and interpret the culture, folklore, placemaking practices of Black communities in the rural U.S. South. For the last ten years, he has set his work in several towns and small communities in north Mississippi, where he was born and raised. Dr. Foster's areas of expertise include the sociology of racism and race, place studies, urban/rural sociology, and qualitative methods. His perspective and theoretical orientation are rooted in the histories and paradigms of Black sociology and the Black Radical Tradition.
Rosenwald Schools in Monroe County, MS
Monroe County Training School (MCTS)
Higgason Rosenwald School
(Cedar Grove)
Jarmon School
Sandy Clay
Smithville School
Whitfield/Watkins School
Young Cross Roads School
Are You an Alum or Supporter Who Would Like to Assist Us?
Are You an Alum or Supporter Who Would Like to Assist Us?
Brent Leggs
Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and Senior Vice President
"I was always excited when I found a Rosenwald school still standing. Many times, however, nothing was left. It was as if these places had never existed; only their landscapes remain, rich with memories of students walking to school and toward their potential. In many cases entire communities had disappeared, which left me with a haunting feeling of loss and invisibility.”
Estell Sims Halliburton
Estell Sims Halliburton
Estell attended Sandy Clay Rosenwald Elementary School. Her teacher, Mrs. Lucy Jenkins, encouraged her to write. She discusses her life in Leaving Aberdeen, published in 2021.
"Leaving Aberdeen is the story of a young Southern girl's awakening during a turbulent time of racial reckoning, from reading torn textbooks in a one-room schoolhouse to attending a premier HBCU, from professional modeling to motherhood, and from accepting her "place" to supporting her husband's membership as a Black Panther. Through it all, Estell's love-for and from her parents, siblings, relatives, husband, children, and friends-is a beacon of the hope that carried her through."
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