North Carolina school gets grant for African-American Heritage Center

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — A historically black university in North Carolina has received a $350,000 grant to turn a 1920s-era school for African-American children into a center to tell the stories of those students and others educated at similar schools.

Elizabeth City State University officials say in a news release that National Endowment for the Humanities gave the grant to pay for the renovation of the Rosenwald School building and the Principal’s House on the campus.

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ECSU officials said last week that they must match the grant with donations to go toward the $1.5 million cost of turning the buildings into the Northeastern North Carolina African-American Research and Cultural Heritage Center.

Rosenwald Schools were named for Julius Rosenwald, a Sears and Roebuck executive who paid for schools for rural black children across the Southeast.

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