In 1912, Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute, approached Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, with an idea for a pilot program that led to the creation of the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. The foundation provided partial funding for the construction of more than 5,300 buildings in 15 states, including schools, teachers' houses, and shops built by and for African Americans. They shared a commitment to self-help and a firm belief that education could improve the lives of black Americans in the rural South. Initial building plans were developed by design students and staff in the Tuskegee Institute mechanical industries and architecture program. These architectural structures sheltered the education of thousands of African American children. John S. Jones, a native of Smoke Bend, a community north of Donaldsonville, was the Rosenwald agent responsible for the development of more than 400 schools built in Louisiana. This building was moved from St. James Parish in 2001 by the River Road African American Museum. In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Rosenwald Schools to its list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places. Many of the buildings have been abandoned or remodeled beyond recognition, and this building is one of the only four-room wooden schools remaining in the United States.