In the era of legalized segregation, an unlikely collaboration between two visionaries changed the state of public education for African-Americans in the rural South. Booker T. Washington, an educator and Black political leader, and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald coordinated the construction of more than 5,000 schoolhouses across the southeast. The buildings were erected to create spaces for Black students to receive a formalized education. About a dozen "Rosenwald Schools," as they came to be called, were built in Hertford County, N.C. Filmmaker Caroline Stephenson, a Hertford County native, is currently producing a documentary about the history of Rosenwald Schools in that community. She joins host Frank Stasio to talk about her documentary project and the reunion event she is co-organizing for alumni of Rosenwald Schools in northeastern North Carolina.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.