Booker T. Washington
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Adulthood
Being rather convincing, Washington persuaded the staff at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute that he was worthy of becoming a student there. Earning his tuition while working part-time as a janitor, he was able to enter the school. General Samuel C. Armstrong, school founder and headmaster, took notice of Washington's integrity and promise and became his mentor. In 1875, after graduating, Washington taught grade school in Malden, his hometown, before going to Washington, DC and attending seminary school for a short time.
Asked to speak at Hampton's graduation ceremony in 1879, Washington returned to his old school where he met with his mentor, Armstrong. The two men discussed the founding of a new technical school for black students in Alabama. Inspired by the idea of leading the cause for Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Washington assumed his new role and campaigned for Tuskegee's establishment in 1881. Washington raised money through diligent promotion of the school and gained the support of white investors, according to the philosophy of accommodation. Through this philosophy suggesting white supremacy as a 'necessary evil,' Washington and his followers conceded that black citizens should 'accommodate' racism in order to develop economic self-reliance.
Booker T. Washington & Tuskegee Institute Staff
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By training black students to become teachers, farmers, and carpenters, the staff at Tuskegee focused on providing a vocational education that would help their students avoid the pitfalls of poverty and disillusionment. W.E.B. Dubois, a contemporary of Washington's and a University of Atlanta scholar, disagreed with the notion of accommodation and professed the urgency of empowerment and activism against racial prejudice and discrimination. Nonetheless, Washington's appeal among working-class black citizens remained strong.
Legacy and Accomplishments
A caring intellectual, Washington was not only an educator but also a spokesman and writer. In 1895, he spoke at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. The speech he gave catapulted him to the status of a national hero almost overnight. In the speech, he recognized the segregation and disenfranchisement common in the post-Reconstruction South. However, he proposed that whites give blacks a chance to prosper through education; survive in the economy; and have justice in the court system.
In 1901, publicizing the success of Tuskegee and his social vision of black achievement in small business, landownership (as opposed to sharecropping), and self-employment, Washington wrote his autobiography, Up from Slavery. This book was very successful in that both blacks and whites heralded its meaningful message. Up from Slavery was the main symbol of Booker T. Washington's success as a black leader during a time of growing racial strife in American history. Moreover, President Theodore Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft had appointed Washington to the post of Presidential Advisor on racial issues. In fact, at the request of President Roosevelt, Washington was the first black leader ever invited to a White House dinner.
One of the many major accomplishments in Washington's career was the 1901 founding of the National Negro Business League, which was an organization devoted to the cause of training black workers through industrial education. Further, Washington secretly aided civil rights cases, while serving on the boards of Fisk and Howard Universities. He led Tuskegee Institute until his death in 1915 due to congestive heart failure at the age of 59.
Unforgettable Quotes
As a noteworthy educator, spokesman, and author, Booker T. Washington made a plethora of memorable statements. Some of his key remarks are:
'Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.'
'Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.'
'If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.'
'You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.'
'Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.'
'Character, not circumstance, makes the person.'
'No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.'
Lesson Summary
Booker T. Washington rose up from slavery because of his penchant for learning and his understanding of the methods necessary to ameliorate the black experience during the post-Reconstruction era. While a scholar at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Washington studied under the tutelage of General Samuel C. Armstrong and formed a lasting relationship with him. Armstrong mentored and guided Washington, and recommended him for the position of founder of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. In his nationally-acclaimed autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington professed his conservative views on race relations in America. Although his ideals were often shunned by well-educated black elites, Booker T. Washington struck a popular chord among poor, underprivileged, and working-class African Americans who valued his acceptance in the white, philanthropic community.
