Booker T. Washington - Chapter 16, Period 6

Booker T. Washington was a mulatto orator, educator, author, and political leader. He has been called the most influential spokesman for African Americans between 1895 and 1915. Though he was born in a slave hut, he was freed after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, when Washington was just 7 years old. He began his journey by attending the Agriculture Institute in Virginia. After graduating, Washington taught children in a day school, and adults in a night school for a few years. He then studied at a seminary in Washington D.C. and joined the staff at Hampton. Soon after, Washington was chosen to head the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for blacks in Alabama. This school taught not only book smarts, but practical skills too, such as shoemaking, farming and carpentry.  It started out as an extremely poor institution, but with Washington's help became a model school of industrial education. The successes of the school drew donations from many philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie. He had differing views than other civil rights' movement leaders; Washington believed that African Americans should focus on gaining economic stability before putting all of their efforts into gaining full civil rights. By doing this, they could gain respect from the white community by having a respectable family and home.In 1895, Washington was asked to speak at a convention in Atlanta. There, he accepted racial segregation on the conditions that whites would allow blacks a fair education, fair trials and fair economic opportunity. This made Washington a national hero to African Americans. In 1900 Washington founded the National Negro Business League, which was an association to help promote the "commercial and financial development of the Negro". Then in 1901, he published his biography, Up From Slavery. Washington's influence and judgment were so powerful that presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt used him as an advisor, though they both had strong racial prejudices. They trusted Washington because he accepted racial subordination, unlike many other black political leaders of the time. Though his views were honest and fair, Washington developed a group of dissenters within the black community. However this was only a small percent of African Americans, the rest backed Washington 100%. One of Washington's greatest influences early in his life was the principal of the Agriculture Institute of Virginia, Samuel Armstrong. Armstrong was against slavery and led a troop of African Americans during the Civil War. Armstrong believed that free slaves needed an education and could not be denied one, because without an education, there's not much they can do with their freedom. This belief strongly influenced Washington's beliefs later in life that African Americans should be educated and have financial stability before rallying strongly for civil rights.  Washington also believed that the ability to earn a living a acquire property were far more important than the right to vote. Overall, Booker T. Washington was an incredible man and a great influence to all.

" Booker T. Washington." 2011. Biography.com 27 Oct 2011.  http://www.biography.com/people/booker-t-washington-9524663

"Booker T. Washington : Biography." Spartacus Educational. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbooker.htm>.

Wormser, Richard. "Booker T. Washington." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_booker.html>.