National Building Museum Showcases Landmark Exhibitions on Rosenwald Schools and Tuskegee Chapel

The two exhibitions reveal how architecture, education, and collaboration shaped Black American life and the nation's shared history.

Published on Feb. 13, 2026

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The National Building Museum is presenting two major exhibitions that, for the first time, will be experienced in conversation with one another. "A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker. T Washington and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America" and "The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph x Fry & Welch" illuminate how the built environment was a powerful force for dignity, aspiration, and community transformation for Black Americans.

Why it matters

These exhibitions demonstrate how place becomes meaningful when animated by human intentions and collaboration. From the rural schoolhouses that transformed educational access across the segregated South to the rebuilt Tuskegee Chapel that embodied ambition and self-determination during the Civil Rights Movement, these projects show how communities shaped their futures through design, labor, and collective vision.

The details

The Rosenwald Schools required shared investment, with local Black communities raising funds and contributing labor and land, while philanthropist Julius Rosenwald's philanthropy provided major support. This early model of public-private partnership reshaped educational opportunity across the South. The Tuskegee Chapel was rebuilt after the original was destroyed by fire in 1957, with modernist architect Paul Rudolph designing the new structure and African American architects Louis Fry, Sr., and Col. John Welch translating Rudolph's vision into brick, integrating it into Tuskegee's historic campus and drawing on the extraordinary skill of Tuskegee's masonry students and alumni.

  • The exhibitions will open on February 28, 2026.
  • The original Tuskegee Chapel, designed by Robert R. Taylor, was destroyed by fire in 1957.

The players

National Building Museum

The museum that is hosting the two landmark exhibitions.

Julius Rosenwald

A philanthropist who forged a partnership with Booker T. Washington that led to the construction of 4,978 schools for Black children across the segregated South.

Booker T. Washington

An educator who partnered with Julius Rosenwald to build the Rosenwald Schools, laying the groundwork for civic leadership, the Great Migration, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Paul Rudolph

A modernist architect who conceived the design for the rebuilt Tuskegee Chapel after the original was destroyed by fire.

Louis Fry, Sr. and Col. John Welch

African American architects who translated Rudolph's concrete vision for the Tuskegee Chapel into brick, integrating it into Tuskegee's historic campus and drawing on the extraordinary skill of Tuskegee's masonry students and alumni.

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What they’re saying

“These exhibitions tell distinct stories, but they share a common truth: buildings are never just structures, they are vessels for memory, resilience, and possibility.”

— Aileen Fuchs, President and Executive Director of the National Building Museum (National Building Museum)

“The Rosenwald Schools are one of the most overlooked stories of American architecture and moral imagination. These were not just school buildings, they were acts of belief in a better future, built through partnership across divides.”

— Andrew Feiler (National Building Museum)

“The Tuskegee Chapel is fundamentally a story of partnership. It is about designers and builders, educators and students, materials and vision, all coming together to create something larger than the sum of its parts.”

— Helen Bechtel, Curator (National Building Museum)

What’s next

The exhibitions will open to the public on February 28, 2026 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

The takeaway

These two exhibitions showcase how architecture, education, and collaboration can be powerful forces for dignity, aspiration, and community transformation, especially for marginalized communities. By presenting these stories side-by-side, the National Building Museum is illuminating the shared history and lasting impact of these landmark projects.