By: John Stephens
May 10, 2024
The Featured Projects series focuses on historic preservation projects focused on preserving Black history throughout SC. Each project is asked to respond to four prompts. We hope this series helps bring awareness to the stunning number and variety of preservation projects being undertaken across the state, highlights the dedication of our community leaders, and inspires future generations of projects.
Want to feature your preservation project? Send us an email here.
| Provide a brief summary of your project, making sure to include why it’s important for African American historic preservation. |
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| Ruffin Rosenwald School, now the BZS Community Center, is the only remaining standing Rosenwald School in Colleton County. The current standing building was built in 1928-29, after the first school building from 1921 was burned in a fire. At the time it was built, it was the only school for Black children in the county. The school operated until 1953, when the movement for school equalization closed the Ruffin Rosenwald and opened Ruffin High School and Elementary School. After it closed, the building was empty for more than 10 years before three local churches came together to form the BZS Committee to save the building in 1964. The BZS Community Center has been available to the community since then, with the Committee’s long legacy of dedication to preserving and restoring the building. “The BZS Community Center once served as a Rosenwald School in the early 1900s, and is one of the few of its kind still standing today.With aspirations to promote “the well-being of mankind,” Julius Rosenwald and his family established a fund in 1917 contributing over $70 million dollars to public schools, colleges, museums and Jewish charities. Recognizing the suppressed access and quality of public education for black children in the south, the Rosenwald Fund dedicated itself to establishing black schools. Collaborating with Booker T. Washington, nearly 5,000 schools, shops and teacher homes were founded in 11 states. Of these, about 500 schools were built in South Carolina. By 1928, their efforts resulted in one-third of black children receiving an education in rural communities – such as Ruffin.” – https://coastalcommunityfoundation.org/hand-in-hand-community-outreach-restoring-pride-in-the-ruffin-community/ |
| What motivated you/your community/your team to begin this project? |
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| The community center has hosted events including being a summer feeding station, candidate forums, and vacation Bible school sessions. We are committed to keeping the facility available for our neighbors. |
| What challenges have you faced in this project? |
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| The costs of the project exceed our recent operating budgets. Time and moisture have weakened the floors of our building. The current state of the floor joists makes the building unsuitable for most gatherings; further deterioration will threaten the survival of the building. These types of repairs are costly maintenance to undertake, but necessary if we wish to see this unique structure survive into the future. |
| How have you solved problems and found solutions? What advice would you give to others doing this kind of work? |
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| We are accelerating our fundraising plan and exploring other fundraising activities, as well as getting help from other sources. We are working towards a National Register of Historic Places designation, so that Ruffin can be recognized for its significant history, become historically protected, and be eligible to apply for additional funding. On February 19, 2022, we unveiled a SC State Historical Marker at Ruffin/BZS Community Center. It had been a lot of hard work and effort to get the historical marker, and seeing it installed was a joyful and prideful day. Alumni of the school and BZS Committee members were present and gave tours of the building. The marker is an important step in gaining wider statewide recognition and more support for the project. |
| For more…. |
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| BZS Community CenterPO Box 111Ruffin, SC 29475Email bzs-community@protonmail.com https://walterborolive.com/stories/ruffin-welcomes-long-awaited-marker,39033 https://coastalcommunityfoundation.org/hand-in-hand-community-outreach-restoring-pride-in-the-ruffin-community/ |