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.
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