Rosa Young facts for kids

Rosa Jinsey Young (born May 16, 1890 – died June 30, 1971) was an amazing African American teacher. She worked mostly in the Black Belt area of Alabama. Rosa Young was born in Rosebud, Alabama. Her father, Grant, was a pastor, and her mother was Nancy Young.

Rosa was very smart. She was the top student in her class when she graduated from Daniel Payne College in Selma, Alabama, in 1909. In 1912, she started her first school, called Rosebud Literary and Industrial School. At first, only seven students attended. But in just two years, the school grew to have 215 students!

How a Tiny Bug Changed Everything

In 1914, a tiny bug called the cotton boll weevil caused big problems. It ruined cotton crops in Wilcox County. This made it very hard for families to earn money. Because of this, students' families could not afford to pay for school anymore.

Rosa Young really wanted to keep her school open. She asked the Methodist Church for help, but they could not give any. Then, she wrote to Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute. He told her to contact a group called the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. This group had a big member church called the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

New Help and a New Church

Rosa sent her letter on October 27, 1915. The church group's Mission Board sent a person named Nils Bakke to Rosebud in January 1916. He checked out the school and saw how important it was. They agreed to help the school and pay Rosa Young $20 each month to teach.

Rosa Young herself became the first Black person in Alabama to join the Lutheran Church. Soon after, a church called Christ Lutheran Church was started. On Palm Sunday in 1916, 58 people were baptized. Also, 70 people were confirmed into the church.

Spreading Education and Faith

News about the school and the new Lutheran church in Rosebud spread quickly. People in other African American communities in Alabama and nearby states heard about it. They asked the church group to start more schools and churches.

By 1927, there were 27 churches with schools connected to them. Rosa Young helped start a total of 30 schools and 35 churches in Alabama. The number of churches grew even more in the 1930s.

Later, many African Americans moved away from rural areas during the Great Migration. This caused some rural communities and Lutheran churches to become smaller. However, the African American Lutherans who moved from Alabama helped start new Lutheran churches all over the country. In 1977, 35 African American pastors in the LCMS church could trace their beginnings back to the work done in Alabama.

Teaching at College

In 1922, Rosa Young also helped create the Alabama Lutheran Academy and College in Selma. This school was later called Concordia College Alabama. Rosa Young taught there as a professor from 1946 to 1961. Concordia College Alabama continued to operate until 2018.

Her Book and Honors

Rosa Young wrote a book about her life called Light in the Dark Belt. It was first published in 1930 and then again in 1950. In 1961, she received a special honor. She was given an honorary doctorate degree from Concordia Theological Seminary.