Historical Marker Program

Okfuskee County, Rosenwald Schools, and Boley

Okfuskee County
Location: on US-62 in Boley
Coordinates: 35.488227, -96.484178
Material: Aluminum
Sponsor(s): Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation/Town of Boley
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Education; Ethnic Diversity; Religion/Philosophy

In 1911, Booker T. Washington, head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, asked Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish Philanthropist, to serve on the board of directors at Tuskegee. Rosenwald's desire to help, nurtured by Dr. Washington, led to the creation of the Rosenwald Fund. Between 1917 and 1932, the Rosenwald Fund built 5,340 schools for Black-American children. One hundred and ninety-nine Rosenwald schools were built in Oklahoma: fourteen schools and three teacher's homes were in Okfuskee County. Boley High School, a beneficiary of Rosenwald funding, provided generations of young people opportunities to better lives.