This bill creates a new national historical park dedicated to Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools. Rosenwald was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist who partnered with Booker T. Washington to build about 5,000 schools for African American children in the segregated South between 1912 and 1932. These schools educated over 600,000 children and produced many civil rights leaders, including John Lewis, Maya Angelou, and Medgar Evers. The bill also honors Rosenwald's other contributions, including his fund that supported nearly 900 talented artists and scholars (two-thirds of whom were African American), his support for early civil rights legal cases, and his work founding the Jewish Federation of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.

The new national park will have its main headquarters and visitor center in Chicago at the historic Sears complex where Rosenwald made his fortune. The park will also include three preserved Rosenwald School buildings in Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia. The National Park Service will manage these sites and create a network connecting all remaining Rosenwald Schools across the country to tell their story. The park won't officially open until the National Park Service acquires enough land to make it a workable unit, and the agency will need to develop a management plan within three years of receiving funding.