S-3925-119
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held.
Sponsored by Richard Durbin (D-IL)
What it does
This bill would create the Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park as a new unit of the National Park System. The park would include a 40-acre Chicago site centered on the former Sears headquarters complex, plus three restored Rosenwald School buildings in Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The bill would also direct the National Park Service to establish a nationwide Rosenwald Schools National Network connecting remaining school sites, and to add interpretive programming about Julius Rosenwald at two existing national historic sites in Illinois and Alabama.
Who benefits
Visitors and students who would gain access to preserved historic sites and educational programming. African American communities in the South whose history and educational legacy would receive formal federal recognition. Residents of North Lawndale in Chicago, who may see increased tourism and economic activity near the park's headquarters. Historians, educators, and researchers focused on African American history, Jewish American philanthropy, and the civil rights movement. State and local governments in Illinois, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia, which could receive federal technical and financial assistance for preservation. Owners of privately held Rosenwald School properties who could access NPS grants and cooperative agreements.
Who is hurt
Federal taxpayers who would bear the costs of land acquisition, park administration, and network operations, though the bill does not specify an appropriations amount. Property owners near the Chicago site or the three school locations who could face increased traffic, development pressure, or federal land acquisition activity. Competing preservation or park proposals that may be deprioritized for NPS resources and congressional attention. The San Domingo School in Maryland is restricted to acquisition by donation, purchase with donated funds, or exchange only — limiting the federal government's flexibility and potentially leaving that site without full NPS management if private funding is unavailable.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that the Rosenwald Schools represent one of the most consequential private investments in American public education, producing more than 600,000 graduates — including civil rights leaders John Lewis, Medgar Evers, and Maya Angelou — at a time when Southern states systematically denied Black children access to public schooling. They contend that fewer than 500 of the original 5,000 school buildings survive, making federal preservation action urgent before additional irreplaceable structures are lost, and that the NPS network model has successfully preserved comparable multi-site histories such as the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that the federal government already manages hundreds of national park units and that adding a geographically dispersed, multi-state park with a Chicago headquarters strains NPS's maintenance budget, which the Government Accountability Office has documented carries a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $22 billion. They contend that the story of Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools is already recognized through existing National Historic Landmarks and state preservation programs, and that private philanthropic and community organizations — consistent with Rosenwald's own model of community-matched funding — are better positioned to lead preservation without creating new long-term federal obligations.