Amy Guthrie March 29, 2012US History 202-Colvard

Booker T. Washington

(April 5, 1856-November 14, 1915)

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African-American

educator, author, advisor to Republican presidents, and a black

political leader. A representative of the last generation of

black American leaders born in slavery, he spoke on behalf of

blacks who lived in the South, but had lost their ability to vote

because of harsh voter regulations set forth by southern

legislatures. He became the most influential spokesperson for

black Americans between 1895 and 1915. Although he accomplished

many things in his lifetime, his greatest and perhaps most

successful contribution to the South was the Tuskegee Normal and

Industrial Institute, better known today as Tuskegee University.

Washington worked hard gain support from numerous groups:

influential whites; the black business, educational and religious

communities nationwide; financial donations from philanthropists.

He was also well known for his accommodation to the political

realities of Jim Crow segregation laws. Washington proved to be

a compelling subject. My reading material focused my attention

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on issues of leadership and public appearance, the nature of his

work and what impacts it had on the African-American community,

and also shed light on the power struggles among the African-

American elite. There are parts of his story that may have

caused some to think of Booker T. Washington as a man who wasn’t

sure who his racial allegiances were with, a man for whom white

approval was everything. However, he accomplished so much of

which he set out to accomplish and more, all of it, in some way

directly beneficial to the black American community, that the

interpretation mentioned above would be difficult to support.

Either way, no judgments can possibly be passed against this man

that would provide sufficient cause to dismiss his importance,

his contributions to his society as well as our current society,

or his well-earned position in our history books.

Booker, simply because of his skin color, was pre-destined

to be a slave. His mother, Jane, an older brother, and Booker

were three of the six slaves working on the small farm near

Hale’s Ford, Virginia, where Booker was born. His father was a

local white farmer. However, nothing else is known to be factual

about the white man who impregnated the black slave woman; a deed

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which was not at all tolerated 155 years ago, especially not in

the South. Jane loyally guarded his identity. If she ever told

Booker who his father was, he never uttered his identity either.

Although it was the center of much speculation, and a favorite

topic for gossip among both the black and white community, his

name has never been confirmed.

Among the many adjustments made to this country during the

era of Reconstruction, one changed the South forever in the eyes

and minds of both the black slaves and white slave owners. This

was also the event which changed the course of Booker T.

Washington’s fate, making it possible for him to go out and get

his education. On January 1, 1863, during the American Civil

War, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order, known

as the Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed the freedom of

slaves in the ten states that were then in rebellion: immediately

freeing 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the United States

at that time, and freeing the remaining slaves as Union armies

advanced. The slaves on the farm where Booker lived with his

family were emancipated in 1865. Booker was just nine years old

and, upon gaining an understanding of his new status as “free”,

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immediately stressed a desire to attend school. Jane left the

plantation with him and his older brother, John. They set out on

a 10-day wagon journey to West Virginia, where Jane would rejoin

with her husband. Dire poverty ruled out regular schooling, so

at age 10, Booker found employment and occasionally was able to

attend an hour or two at a nearby school for colored children.

For the next five years he labored, doing several different

manual labor jobs and working in salt furnaces or in coal mines

to help provide for his family. Then, Washington left home on

foot and made his way to Hampton Roads, 386 miles away, where he

sought a formal education.

In 1872, at age sixteen, he arrived at Hampton Normal and

Agricultural Institute (now known as Hampton University) filthy,

hungry, and with only fifty cents to his name. The head teacher

had no pity for him, though, and he was told to sweep the floor

on his way back out the door. To her surprise, he found a broom

and swept the floor three times, mopped, and washed the walls.

He worked his way through Hampton the school custodian,

graduating with honors in 1875.

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In 1875, Washington returned to his hometown in Malden, West

Virginia. He found employment, teaching at the local school for

colored children. Booker stayed with this job for two years,

taking care of his mother until she passed away in 1876. During

this time, his brother went to Hampton for an education, which

Booker paid tuition for. In 1878, to further his own education,

Washington enrolled at Wayland Seminary (now Virginia Union

University) in Washington, D.C, where he studied for the next

eighteen months.

He returned to Hampton as a teacher in 1881, where he taught

night classes for students who had to work during the day and he

also taught a class of 75 Indian boys during the day. Then,

with strong recommendations from Hampton president Samuel T.

Armstrong, Washington was named as head to a newly established

normal school for blacks, in Tuskegee, Alabama. At the time,

Washington was only 25 years old…and there was no actual college

but there were 30 students enrolled for classes. Nevertheless,

on July 4, 1881, Washington officially opened the Tuskegee Normal

Industrial School. Not only was there no school building, but

there were no building supplies or equipment, there was no land

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on which to build a school, and the state only appropriated about

$2,000 a year, which was just enough to pay the faculty.

Washington borrowed money to buy a dilapidated plantation,

actually which was nothing more than two rotting and weathered

buildings. There were no tools or equipment, and very little

money to work with. Classes were temporarily meeting in an

African Methodist Episcopal church. In 1882, the first building

on the campus was built out of bricks that the students made

themselves. Under Washington’s direction, the students built

their own school: constructing classrooms, barns, and out-

buildings; growing their own crops and raising livestock. All of

these additions were used not only for educational purposes, but

also as a means of providing for most of the school’s basic

necessities. A win-win situation, most of the students

gratefully worked on campus as a means of paying for tuition so

that, as a result, money that would have otherwise been used to

pay for labor was available to spend on supplies and equipment.

It was after moving to Tuskegee that Washington married for

the first time. In 1882, he married his childhood sweetheart,

Fannie Smith. A daughter, Portia, was born in 1883. Fannie died

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unexpectedly the next year. In 1885, he married for his second

time to Olivia Davidson. Olivia was also working at Tuskegee

Institute. Olivia and Booker had two boys, Booker Jr. and

Earnest. Olivia died in 1889 and Booker was married, for the

third time, to Margaret Murray in 1893. They did not have any

children but they adopted one of Murray’s nieces, Laura, who had

been orphaned.

There was no sexual discrimination in any of the classes

offered at Tuskegee. In fact, both men and women were required

to learn trades, as well as academics. Washington freely

expressed his dreams for the black race through the direction of

his school. Washington was most supportive of the “industrial”

form of education because, at the time, most African-Americans

lived in the rural, prominently agricultural South. Industrial

education provided students with the skills for the type of work

that was available to most blacks at the time. He was of the

belief that these skills were detrimental to laying a foundation

for establishing the stability that the black would have to

acquire in order to move forward. He believed that by teaching

skills that would actually be of use in the workforce, African-

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Americans would be more adequately prepared to play their part,

which would lead to acceptance from the white Americans. He

believed that with this education, in both academics and

industrial skills, blacks would be more capable of participating

in society if they were taught how to be, rather than just told to

be responsible, productive, reliable American citizens. He felt

strongly that African-Americans should “concentrate all their

energies on industrial education, accumulation of wealth, and the

conciliation of the South.” He said, "No race can prosper until

it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in

writing a poem."

The faculty made sure that each of the responsibilities of

maintaining the campus was seen to, utilizing everyday chores and

tasks as opportunity to teach students basic skills. Students

learned and mastered valuable skills which would later be taken

home to their families and black communities all throughout the

South. The goal was not to produce farmers, but teachers of

farming and trades, who would eventually spread their knowledge

in the black communities, as well as the new schools and colleges

for blacks that were being built all over the South. Washington

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had an overwhelming desire to teach his students to view labor as

not only practical, but also as beautiful and dignified; all the

while, preparing them for job opportunities which were readily

available to them.

Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute became a monument

to Washington’s life’s work. The school continued to grow over

the decades, adding programs and departments, to become what is

recognized today as Tuskegee University. The run-down plantation

which Washington borrowed money to buy in 1881, remains the

permanent site of a well-groomed, expansive college campus. By

1891, Tuskegee Institute had grown to a campus that included over

540 acres of land and approximately 400 students. This was a

huge increase from the thirty students who had started classes in

a church building only ten years before. In 1896, Booker T.

Washington secured funding that opened a separate agriculture

school at Tuskegee, thanks to the Slater Fund for Negro

Education. At the time of his death, 34 years later, the college

consisted of more than 100 well-equipped buildings, some 1,500

students, a faculty of nearly 200 teaching 38 trades and

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professions, and an endowment of roughly $2 million. A figure

much improved from the meager $2,000 a year.

Washington’s schools were founded primarily to produce

teachers. However, all too often, graduates returned to their

poor rural communities to discover that the schools and

educational resources were scarce because state legislatures

consistently under-funded the black schools in segregated areas.

As a solution, Washington pulled together his team of

philanthropist friends to create funds programs that would

stimulate construction of several public schools in the South for

black children in rural areas. Washington was putting his

Tuskegee graduates to work almost immediately, sending them to

teach in the schools he was building all over the Southern

states. He put hundreds of black teachers in jobs, working 5

days a week and making decent wages during a time in which the

majority of the blacks who could actually find work didn’t always

get paid fairly or have consistent work schedules.

Washington worked tirelessly, raising funds to establish and

operate hundreds of small community schools and institutions of a

higher standard of education for blacks. Fortunately, he had

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plenty of connections among the wealthy white politicians and

industry leaders. He was friendly, likable, and he had a knack

for dealing with people. He had an uncanny ability to be “among

friends” anywhere he took a notion to be; even with the upper-

class society, most of whom were already very much impressed with

Washington and his work. Therefore, persuading the wealthy

whites to donate money to black causes was not difficult. He

made friends in high places by cooperating with white people, and

in turn white people cooperated with him. These connections were

the driving force for funding which was used to establish and

operate thousands of small community schools and institutions of

higher learning; all of which focused on the betterment of blacks

in the South.

Washington remained a dominant figure in black politics, and

the African-American community depended on and trusted him to

speak for them as a whole. They had faith that Washington would

look out for their best interests. He did just that, until his

death in 1915. He stepped up to play a dominant role in black

politics, winning wide-spread favor among the black community and

also among the more liberal whites: especially with the wealthy

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whites from the Northern states. A representative of the last

generation of black leaders born into slavery, Booker became a

spokesman for the African-American community. Along the way, he

gained access and introduced himself to top national leaders in

politics, philanthropy, and education.

From 1890 to 1908, Southern states continued to renounce

most blacks and many poor whites through constitutional

amendments and statutes that assured the odds would be in favor of

the Democrats at the end of Election Day. To accomplish an

almost entirely Democratic vote in the South, unfair poll taxes

and literacy tests were implemented as a means keeping ballots

out of black or poor white hands. As a result, Southern white

Democrats, regaining power in state legislatures of the former

Confederacy, immediately began passing laws which formally

established racial segregation and other Jim Crow laws. However,

black American’s were solidly republican during this period and

increasing numbers of blacks continued to vote in border and

Northern states.

Washington’s Atlanta Address, which urged citizens of both races

to work together toward social peace, was said to be

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a“revolutionary moment” by both the black and the white races all

across the country. Delivered before the Cotton States

Exposition in 1895, this speech enlarged Washington's influence

into the arena of race relations and leadership. Later in his

career, Booker was criticized by leaders of the NAACP, a civil

rights organization that formed in 1909. The ring leader of

verbal attacks on Washington was an old colleague-turned-nemesis,

W.E.B Du Bois. At the time Washington had given the speech, Du

Bois was a supporter of Washington and had been a friend.

However, the two men grew apart geographically and, later,

politically when Du Bois sought to use aggression against the

whites to solve the issues of disenfranchisement and under-funded

education. After their falling out, Du Bois and his cronies in

the NAACP began referring to Washington’s Atlanta Address speech as

the “Atlanta Compromise,” expressing their disapproval in

Washington’s accommodation to white interests. Du Bois, who

advocated activism to achieve civil rights, labeled Washington

“the Great Accommodator.” Washington responded, stating that

confrontation could possibly lead to disaster for the blacks, who

would ultimately be outnumbered. Washington believed that it was

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futile, at the time, for blacks to worry about their place in

society. He felt it was better to focus on becoming economically

self-reliant through vocational training. He believed that

patience, tolerance, and open-mindedness with supportive whites

would be the only way to overcome racism in the long run.

Secretly, Washington made substantial contributions to legal

cases against segregation and disenfranchisement of blacks.

However, in the public eye, he stood firm on the idea that he

would be more successful with skillful accommodation to the

social realities. During the days of segregation laws,

Washington’s approach pushed for an initial step toward equal

rights, rather than full equality under the law. This action

eventually proved to the white society that blacks were not as

“naturally stupid and incompetent” as they had been accused of

being in the past. He rather convincingly argued that the best

way for blacks to gain equal social rights was to demonstrate

“industry, thrift, intelligence, and property.” This, in his

educated opinion, was the key to improved conditions for African-

Americans in the United States. Even then, Washington was

mindful of the fact that blacks were still ‘freshly’ emancipated.

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He understood that his people could not hope for, or expect a

change of any great magnitude to happen overnight. Washington

said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much

by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles

in which he has had to overcome while

striving to succeed.”

However, being from the South, Booker’s ideas and points of

view were quite different from the vision seen by many blacks

from the North. The African-Americans from the North were

inspired by Du Bois, who petitioned loudly for blacks to have the

same “classical” liberal arts education as the white race, and

demanded voting rights and civic equality. The differences that

caused such division between Washington and Du Bois were caused

by the differences in the way African-Americans were treated in

the North, versus the South. Historian, Clarence E. Walker said,

“Free black people were ‘matter out of place’. Their

emancipation was an insult to southern white freedom. Booker T.

Washington did not understand that his program was perceived to

be a rebellion against the natural order in which black people

were to remain forever subordinate or un-free.” Despite the

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differences between Washington and Du Bois, they were both

essentially reaching for a common goal. They just both had very

different opinions about how to achieve that goal. Both of them

sought to define the best means to improve the conditions of the

post-Civil War black community through education.

In his lifetime, Washington wrote 14 books. Five of these

were auto-biographical books, written and published with help

from ghost-writers Max Bennett Thrasher and Robert E. Park.

These books were compilations of speeches and essays.

The Story of My Life and Work (1900)

Up from Slavery (1901)

The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery (2 volumes

1909)

My Larger Education (1911)

The Man Farthest Down (1912)

In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington gave all three of

his wives credit for the individual contributions they brought to

Tuskegee. When it was published in 1901, it quickly became a

best-seller and had a major impact on the African-American

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community, as well as its friends and allies. Soon after the

book was announced as a best-selling novel, Washington received a

dinner invitation to the White House in 1901, by President

Theodore Roosevelt. This made Booker T. Washington the first

black man in history to get an invitation to the White House.

Even Washington's visit to the White House, in 1901, was

greeted with a storm of protest, as certain groups labeled it as

a “breach of racial etiquette.” A man who would eventually be

Governor of Mississippi, James K. Vardaman, and Senator Benjamin

Tillman of South Carolina indulged in racist personal attacks in

response to the dinner invitation. Vardaman made a statement,

describing the White House as “so saturated with the odor of the

n*gg*r that the rats have taken refuge in the stables.” And

then, he arrogantly declared, “I am just as much opposed to

Booker T. Washington as a voter as I am to the coconut-headed,

chocolate-colored, typical, little coon who blacks my shoes every

morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of

citizenship.” Tillman, feeling obligated to throw a few punches

of his own, chimed by stating, “The action of President Roosevelt

in entertaining that n*gg*r will necessitate our killing a

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thousand n*gg*rs in the South before they will learn their place

again.”

Also, it just so happened that an ambassador to the United

States was also visiting the White House on the same day as

Washington. He claimed to have found a rabbit’s foot in

Washington’s pocket when he mistakenly put on the wrong coat.

Several newspapers head-lined clever quips the very next morning,

reporting the incident with exaggerated drama and hints of

superstition-based accusations. However, “The Washington Post”

managed to completely take the cake with an entire front-page,

headline story in large, bold lettering which elaborately

described the novelty trinket as “the left hind foot of a

graveyard rabbit, killed in the dark of the moon.” This article

went on to insinuate that most African-Americans entertained or

practiced such dark rituals and sacrifices, an evil type of

voodoo that came over to America with their ancestors. This

article was considered tacky and tasteless, even among most of

the white community, and in no way did it hurt Washington’s

public reputation.

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By 1904, Washington had successfully surrounded himself with

what was called the "Tuskegee Machine;" the powerful, wealthy,

and influential groups and individuals that supported Washington

publicly, politically, and financially. This enabled him to be

influential in many political decisions and he became viewed as

the key national advisor for the African American community. He

was also enormously successful in creating good public relations

for his causes through the use of black newspapers and other

publications.

Then, in 1912, the election of Woodrow Wilson as the twenty-

eighth President of the United States, brought on a turning

point, causing Washington to somewhat let down the public façade

which he had outwardly displayed in the past. Wilson had

campaigned with church-like sermons about his plans to pursue

equal rights for black Americans. He did not follow through with

such promises after he was in office. Stung by this betrayal,

Washington shocked many by publishing an article with a tone more

in common with the militant black leaders of the time. Despite

this attitude change, many believe that Washington had always

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done more behind the scenes than he outwardly made apparent or

for which he was given credit.

Despite his travels and widespread work, Washington

maintained his status as President at Tuskegee. In his last

year, his health deteriorated rapidly. He collapsed in New York

City and was initially admitted to a New York hospital. He told

his wife, Margaret, “I was born in the South, I have lived and

labored in the South, and I expect to be buried in the South,"

and was brought home to his own bed, in Tuskegee, where he died

on November 14, 1915, at the age of 59. His cause of death was

predicted, at the time, to be a result of congestive heart

failure, made worse by overwork. It wasn’t until March, 2006,

that this was confirmed, with the permission of his descendants

to open and examine Booker T. Washington’s medical records. He

is buried right in the center of his pride and joy; on the campus

of Tuskegee University, near the University Chapel.

Honors and Memorials

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Washington was granted an honorary master’s degree from

Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary doctorate from

Dartmouth College in 1901

As the guest of Theodore Roosevelt in 1901-Washington was

the first black man to be invited to the White House. The

visit was recalled, in a 1927, song by Banjo Blues Musician

Gus.

At the end of the 2008 presidential election, the defeated

republican candidate, Senator John McCain, referred to

Washington’s visit, a century before, as a seed that

blossomed with Barack Obama becoming the first African-

American to be elected as President of the United States.

April 7, 1940, Washington became the first African-American

to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. Several

years later, the first coin to feature an African-American,

the Booker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar was made, from

1951 to 1954.

1942-the first water vessel to be named after an African-

American, the Liberty Ship Booker T. Washington.

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April 5, 1956-the Centennial Anniversary of his birth, the

house where he was born in Virginia was designated as the

Booker T. Washington National Memorial.

A state park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was named in his

honor, as well as a bridge spanning the Hampton River that

runs adjacent to his Alma Mater, Hampton University.

1984-Hampton University dedicated a Booker T. Washington

Memorial on campus, near the historic Emancipation Oak.

Numerous high schools, middle schools, and elementary

schools across the United States have been named in honor of

Booker T. Washington.

A memorial at the center of the campus at Tuskegee, called

“Lifting the Veil” was dedicated in 1922. An inscription at

the base reads: “He lifted the veil of ignorance from his

people and pointed the way to progress through education and

industry.”

October 19, 2009-West Virginia State University dedicated a

monument to the memory of noted African-American educator

and statesman, Booker T. Washington. The same monument also

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recognizes and honors the families who knew and encouraged

Washington.

“The Oaks,” Booker T. Washington’s home, still stands, as a

museum, beside Tuskegee University’s main campus. The

large, 2-story home, built for him by students at Tuskegee,

was where he lived from 1900 until his death in 1915.