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Booker T. Washington
1856 

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From 'Turn of the Century History'

There are people whose abilities and energy take them far past any limitations life tries to place on them. Booker T. Washington was one of those people. He rose up from slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost educator and leader of black Americans at the turn of the century.

Childhood

His childhood was one of privation, poverty, slavery and back-breaking work. Born in 1856, he was from birth the property of James Burroughs of Virginia. Not much is known of his father - even by Washington himself. His mother, Jane, raised him, and he was put to work as early as possible. Since it was illegal for a slave to learn to read and write Washington received no education.

On September 22, 1862 Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation, but of course it could not be enforced until the end of the Civil War in 1865. The former slaves were at first jubilant about being free but it quickly became apparent that there was no place for most of them to go. Washington's step-father was very fortunate because he found work packing salt in Malden, West Virginia. Jane moved herself and her children to join her husband. The nine-year old Washington spent long, exhausting days packing salt. Like many blacks after Emancipation, Washington wanted an education. So despite the exhausting days he used his free time to go to school. But it was not enough. When he was 16 he decided that he wanted to go to Hampton Institute in Virginia. He did not know if he could get in, and if he got in he didn't know how he was going to pay for it, but in 1872 he showed up on their doorstep flat broke and hungry.

Hampton Institute was started and run by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Armstrong and the institution he created were to become the one great influence in Washington's life. Armstrong believed in work, study, hygiene, morality, self-discipline and self-reliance - in large amounts. It was not a place for slackers. Armstrong's purpose was to train black teachers, but he believed every student should have a trade as well. Washington's trade was being a janitor. Later, when Washington developed the Tuskegee Institute it emphasized these same qualities and convictions.

Adulthood

After graduation Washington became a teacher in Tinkersville, West Virginia for three years. In 1878 he left to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington DC, but quit after six months. In 1879 Armstrong asked him to return to Hampton Institute as a teacher. Washington did so, and then in 1881 Armstrong recommended him as the principal of a new school called Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

July 4, 1881 was the first day of school at Tuskegee Institute. It was a humble beginning, but under Washington's care both the school and Washington grew to be world famous. His school made lasting and profound contributions to the South and to the United States - such as through the work of one of its teachers - George Washington Carver. One of his main problems was always finding enough money. The support he received from the state was neither generous nor stable enough to build the kind of school he was developing. So he had to raise the money himself by going on speaking tours and solicitating donations. He received a lot of money from white northerners who were impressed with the work he was doing and his non-threatening racial views. Industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller would donate money on a regular basis.

It was these non-threatening racial views that gave Washington the appellation "The Great Accomodater". He believed that blacks should not push to attain equal civil and political rights with whites. That it was best to concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement resting squarely on the shoulders of the black man. Eventually they would earn the respect and love of the white man, and civil and political rights would be accrued as a matter of course. This was a very non-threatening and popular idea with a lot of whites.

As Washington's influence with whites and blacks grew he reaped several honors. In 1901 he wrote a bestseller called Up From Slavery - his autobiography. He also became an advisor to the President of the United States - Theodore Roosevelt. He became the first black ever to dine at the White House with the President. This created a huge scandal. Many white people thought that it was wrong for whites and blacks to mix socially, and for their President to do it horrified them. Roosevelt defended his actions at the time, and he continued to ask for Washington's advice, but he never invited him back.

Eventually Washington's leadership of blacks began to decline. It became apparent that the white people that had gained control of Southern institutions after Reconstruction did not ever want the civil and political status of blacks to improve - regardless of how hard they worked or how much character they had. They passed laws to keep them from voting and to keep them from mixing with whites in schools, stores and restaurants. Many blacks came to believe that a more forceful, demanding approach was needed. They turned to the leadership of William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP. 

If you would like to purchase Booker T. Washington's autobiography, it can be found in electronic format at, http://www.1chapter.com