Richmond museum celebrates legacy of forgotten schools attended by Maya Angelou, John Lewis

Virginia was one of 15 Southern states where a network of nearly 5,000 schools gave generations of Black children an education during segregation .

The latest: Now, the newest exhibit from Richmond's Virginia Museum of History and Culture is honoring the largely hidden legacy of the Rosenwald Schools, whose students included poet Maya Angelou and the late Rep. John Lewis .

• The schools served almost 700,000 kids, or a third of Black children in the South at the time.

The big picture: Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald launched the project with prominent civil rights leader and educator Booker T. Washington, who was born enslaved in Franklin County, Virginia.

• The goal was to improve the quality of education for Black youth and narrow the racial schooling gap between Black and white students.
• Before the rural schools were built between 1912 and 1937 — with the help of local communities — some students were having classes in front yards and living rooms, according to the National Park Service .
• But once the Brown v. Board ruling ordered schools to desegregate in 1954, most of the Rosenwald schools were abandoned, left to become dilapidated vestiges of a Jim Crow past.

Zoom in: Virginia had 382 Rosenwald buildings built across 86 counties, including Goochland and Henrico , and 4 cities between 1917 and 1932, according to the VMHC.

• Nearly two-thirds of Virginia's Rosenwald Schools have been demolished, reports the Times-Dispatch .
• Some, like Second Union School in Goochland , have been restored and turned into a museum.

What's inside: The exhibition, which launched late last month, has a section dedicated to Virginia with a recreated classroom, artifacts and oral histories from at least 14 alumni who attended the schools.

• It also centers photographs from Atlanta-based Andrew Feiler, who documented the buildings left standing across the 15 states.

What's next: "A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America" will run until April 20, 2025.

• Tickets are $12 for adults.