Former Rosenwald School

The Fisk University file on the Ratcliff School holds the building's own ledger. Rosenwald Fund application 26, a one-teacher plan dated 1920-21, cost $2,200 in all. The Black community contributed $700, public money supplied $1,000, and the fund paid $500, so the fund covered less than a quarter of the bill and the community's own share was nearly a third. Of the three payers, the fund gave the least. A penciled note on the card beside the photograph reads "Mr. R's Pic".

What the plaque says

Former Rosenwald School (Now "The Little Red Schoolhouse") A symbol of Black America's pride in education, plus crusade of Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), a Chicagoan who in 1913 began to fund school buildings for negroes. By 1920, when this one-teacher structure was built at Ratcliff (4 miles east), Rosenwald's grants had to be matched -- in this case, by Houston County funds. Alfred Foy (1865-1944), a veteran of brush arbor and log cabin classrooms, taught in this building at Ratcliff 1920-23 and 1924-27; Miss Detroit Denman, 1923-24; Mrs. Evola Colbert Dorn, 1927-55. Their pupils' playground equipment consisted of a baseball diamond, basketball goal, mulberry tree and swing. Yet patrons -- true to zeal that helped obtain the building -- brought in food and saw that the children had hot lunches. Sessions ceased in 1955 when the Ratcliff school was consolidated with Kennard Common School District No. 75. The Ratcliff building was used 1955-68 as the community center for socials and public meetings. In 1868 the "Old Rosenwald School" was moved to Kennard for use by Headstart and related programs. Texas had a total of 518 school buildings funded by the Rosenwald Foundation -- 22 of them in Houston County -- providing classrooms for thousands. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 2.2 mi
  A Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
• Mission Tejas State Park — 13 mi
  A 661-acre pine-forest park on the old El Camino Real near Weches, with a 1930s replica of the 1690 mission, the Rice Family Log Home and trails past remnants of the Spanish road.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 16 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Kennard — steps away
• Hagerville Community — 1.2 mi
• Cornith Cemetery — 1.9 mi
• Pioneer Settlers of Coltharp — 2.1 mi