Richmond museum honors hidden legacy of schools attended by Maya Angelou, 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.