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Title: The Effects of the Jeanes and Rosenwald Funds on Black Education by 1930: Comparing Returns on Investments in Teachers and Schools

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: During the Jim Crow era, Northern philanthropy played a significant role in Southern Black education, yet little research estimates the impact on Black-White inequality in schooling outcomes. One program, The Anna T. Jeanes Fund, trained and supported Black teachers in over 600 Southern counties between 1909 and 1930. Another, The Julius Rosenwald Fund, built over 5,000 rural schools for Southern Black students between 1914 and 1931. I use quasi-experimental evidence from these two interventions to compare marginal returns on educational investments in human resources (teachers) and physical capital (schools).I exploit variation in the timing and location of each program and estimate difference-indifferences,effectively estimating effects on the Black-White gap in both enrollment and literacy. I show that the effect full of exposure to both programs during schooling years would have closed pre-treatment Black-White gaps of 9 and 13 percentage points for enrollment and literacy respectively, with roughly two-thirds of the contribution coming fromthe Rosenwald Fund in both cases.

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Authors: Kreisman, Daniel

Publisher: University of Chicago

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Other, Race and Ethnicity

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