In the early twentieth century, a partnership – between a white, Jewish, northern businessman and a Black, Christian, southern educator – built thousands of schools for African American children across the segregated South. Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington reached across divides of race, religion, and region and created the program known as Rosenwald schools. Ellie Dahmer stands inside the Bay Springs School (Forrest County, Mississippi, 1925-1958). Her husband, Vernon Dahmer Sr., had been a student at the school. He became the head of the NAACP in Forrest County, and when the school closed he turned the building into a center for civil rights activism. Vernon Dahmer Sr. was later murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Ellie Dahmer also attended a Rosenwald school. She began a long education career as a teacher at Bay Springs. The schoolhouse was recently restored by the Dahmer’s son Dennis. It again serves as a community center.