1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools Act of 2019 . 2. Findings Congress finds that— (1) Julius Rosenwald was born in 1862 in Springfield, Illinois, to Samuel Rosenwald and his wife, Augusta Hammerslough, a Jewish immigrant couple from Germany; (2) in 1868, Samuel Rosenwald purchased the Lyon House, where Julius grew up and lived with his family until the 1880s, which— (A) was diagonally across the street from the home where Abraham Lincoln lived prior to becoming president; and (B) (i) was restored recently before the date of enactment of this Act; and (ii) as of that date of enactment, was within the boundary of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System; (3) Julius Rosenwald— (A) learned the clothing trade with relatives in New York City; and (B) used that knowledge on moving to Chicago, where he became part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, which— (i) he transformed into a retailing powerhouse in the early 20th century; and (ii) could be considered the Amazon of its day; (4) the embodiment of the Jewish concept of tzedakah , righteousness and charity, Rosenwald used his fortune for numerous philanthropic activities, particularly to enhance the lives of African Americans, including by— (A) providing $25,000 for the construction of Young Men's Christian Associations (commonly known as YMCAs ) for African Americans during the Jim Crow era in cities that raised $75,000; and (B) eventually, supporting the construction of YMCAs in 24 cities across the United States; (5) (A) after his introduction to Booker T. Washington in 1911, Julius Rosenwald— (i) joined the Board of Trustees of the Tuskegee Institute; and (ii) financially contributed to a pilot program to build 6 schools in rural Alabama for African-American children who were receiving little to no education