{"id":13174,"date":"2026-02-20T13:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=13174"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:20:27","slug":"book-talk-a-better-life-for-their-children","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/event\/book-talk-a-better-life-for-their-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Talk: A Better Life for Their Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Feiler<\/span>, photographer, author, and exhibition curator, will discuss his book\u00a0<\/span>A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0and the accompanying exhibition of the same name. Over more than\u00a025,000 miles\u00a0of travel, Feiler photographed 105 surviving Rosenwald Schools and interviewed dozens of former students, teachers, preservationists, and community leaders to document this historic educational program.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born to Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and turn it into the world\u2019s largest retailer. Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington became the founding principal of\u00a0Tuskegee\u00a0Institute. In 1912, the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with Black communities across the segregated South to build public schools for African American children. The program\u00a0ultimately built\u00a04,978 schools across fifteen southern and border states. This watershed moment in the history of philanthropy, one of the earliest collaborations between Jews and African Americans, transformed\u00a0education\u00a0and helped shape the next generation of civil rights leaders.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feiler will share images and stories from his journey and the exhibition, on view at the\u00a0Museum\u00a0through the end of 2026.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Copies of\u00a0<\/span>A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America\u00a0<\/span><\/em>will be available for purchase, with a book signing following the program.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Program Schedule<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6 pm Doors and Exhibition Open\u202f<\/span>
\n6:30\u00a0pm\u00a0Talk\u202f<\/span>
\n7:30 pm Light Refreshments\u202f<\/span>
\n8 pm Close<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About Andrew Feiler<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Feiler\u202fis a photographer and author and fifth generation Georgian. Having grown up Jewish in Savannah, he has been shaped by the rich complexities of the American South. Feiler has long been active in civic life. He has helped create over a dozen community initiatives, serves on multiple not-for-profit boards, and is an active advisor to\u00a0numerous\u00a0elected officials and political candidates. His art is an extension of his civic values.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feiler was named \u201cBook Photographer of the Year\u201d by Prix de la\u00a0Photographie\u00a0Paris in 2022 for his book,\u202f<\/span>A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America.\u202f<\/span><\/em>The book also won the Prix de la\u00a0Photographie\u00a0Paris 2022 gold medal for documentary book as well as the International Photography Awards 2022 first place for documentary book. It has been honored with a\u00a0BarTur\u00a0Photography Award, an Eric Hoffer Book Award, and a Book, Jacket, and Journal Award from the Association of University Presses.\u00a0Photolucida\u00a0named Feiler\u2019s Rosenwald school images a 2020 Top 50 portfolio and\u00a0Photoville\u00a0selected them for the 2020 edition of The Fence, an outdoor exhibition displayed internationally in eleven cities. The solo exhibition of this work is now on tour.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feiler\u2019s photographs have been instrumental in the campaign to create a new U.S. national historical park and inspired the composition of a symphony. His work has been featured in the\u202f<\/span>Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, The Atlantic,\u00a0L\u2019\u0152il\u00a0de la\u00a0Photographie, Architect, Preservation, The Forward\u202f<\/span><\/em>as well as on<\/span>\u202fCBS This Morning,\u202f<\/span><\/em>PBS,andNPR. His prints have been displayed in galleries and museums including solo exhibitions at such venues as the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, and International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, NC. His photographs are in public and private collections including that of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Portrait Gallery.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Andrew Feiler.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Feiler, photographer, author, and exhibition curator, will discuss his book\u00a0A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America and the accompanying exhibition of the same name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":13175,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[269],"class_list":["post-13174","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-adult-programs","cat_adult-programs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/13174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/13174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13289,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/13174\/revisions\/13289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13174"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=13174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}