Rappahannock News

Scrabble school featured in documentar­y

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The historic Scrabble School, a Rosenwald School in Castleton, will be the subject of yet another documentar­y to be released in May 2021, this time in cooperatio­n with Education Week, an independen­t news organizati­on that has covered education since 1981.

Late last month, Education Week sent a video producer to the school site to document the Scrabble story. The producer sat with one alumna, Jane Carpenter Pollard, now a resident of Culpeper, to discuss the times, teaching technique and teachers during her years at Scrabble. Pollard and her six siblings attended Scrabble during their formative years. Pollard went on to complete her high school education at George Washington Carver High School which served African American students in the four-county Rapidan region before integratio­n. Pollard went on to the Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) in Petersburg, Virginia. Pollard is now retired a er an outstandin­g career as an educator in the Culpeper County school system.

Video Producer Brooke Saias said that the video will serve as a companion piece to the campaign for the Julius Rosenwald National Park, currently under study a er legislatio­n was passed by Congress late last year. Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthro­pist, was best known as the founder of Sears, Roebuck, and Co. In cooperatio­n with Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute (now University), Rosenwald built over 5,000 schools for African American students in the rural south, including Scrabble and three others in Rappahanno­ck beginning in the early 1900s. Rosenwald establishe­d a fund for the schools and local families contribute­d matching dollars. In some instances, a portion of the monies came from the local school systems as well.

 ?? PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCRABBLE SCHOOL PRESERVATI­ON FOUNDATION ?? Jane Carpenter Pollard, now and then.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCRABBLE SCHOOL PRESERVATI­ON FOUNDATION Jane Carpenter Pollard, now and then.
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