Part 1 - Marvin Jones will give a overview of the people and organizations who propagated education among people of color and how southern whites also greatly benefited. Julius Rosenwald and his Rosenwald schools are an example.  Union officers and missionaries expanded literacy and skills in the south, resulting in a great rise in the reading population and creating schools, some of which exist today.

Part 2 -  Pleasant Plains community in northeastern North Carolina began in the 1740's. Pleasant Plains Baptist leaders built its schoolhouse the year after the end of the Civil War.  They went on to establish other schools in their area and in Virginia.  The first schoolhouse was replaced by the current Rosenwald building. After the school’s closing in 1950, Pleasant Plains Schoolhouse became a community center.  Mr. Jones will present the stories and images of the school and the community it serves.