Booker T. Washington was born in1856. He was from a humble background. He studied at the Hampton Institute where he also taught in his future career. This was a substantial change from law and ministering to a teaching career. He highly influenced relations of the southern race and played a key role in public affairs of the black people.
Washington fought for rights of African-Americans population to be literate them from slavery. His leadership was conservative making him to receive support from the whites as well as influencing large followers from the Africans-Americans. Notably, African-Americans may have brawled since their arrival in the 1600s on slave ships. The slaves were strained to work in farms, for two consecutive centuries under the eye the white owners. Their living conditions were poor and were not given chance to acquire education. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation brought freedom to the African-Americans and following their newly acquired freedom, these African-Americans were jobless due to lack of knowledge (Toppin 45).
Following the Emancipation Proclamation, he proceeded to work in a coal mine. When he was seventeen, Washington went to work at Hampton Institute where he worked as a janitor. He then proceeded to become a student there and subsequently a well-known speaker on educational subjects where he emphasized on hard work. After wards in 1901, Washington received an invitation from President Theodore Roosevelt to White House (Norrell 87). This was seen as a social intercourse between the blacks and the whites. The blacks were receiving more recognition and acceptance. Booker T. slowly began to earn respect and he started preaching to Blacks to accept they were inferior compared to whites. Booker enlightened them that they had to prove to the whites, they had the social capability of taking care of themselves. He advised them that, in order to make successful businesses, they had to get into politics and also get educated. Booker T. was given the name "The Great Compromiser" due to these beliefs (Mackintosh et al 21). Most ex-slave owners started to respect the notions of Booker T., and not only was he acknowledged by the Blacks, the whites started to respect him. However, Booker T. Washington received criticism from other African American leaders such as William Du Bois in his essay the Soul of Black Folks. However, he retaliated with his Niagara Movement. They also differed over the establishment of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAAP). In addition, Du Bois and other African Americans claimed that Washington was not telling the whole truth as they argued that he had large financial responsibilities and dependence on the rich who compelled him not to reveal the truth in order to protect their interests.
Booker T. Washington had a vision to provide vocational skills training in the institute to assist the African-Americans acquire jobs in diverse industries and railroads. In 1881, Booker T. founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial institute. Being the only all black school in America at the time, he assured all white people that the institute would not be an economic threat to them. This institute had an effect on civil rights movements. The Tuskegee Institute had a positive effect on the Civil Rights movement (Norrell 120). This institute trained and produced more African-American military generals compared to all other black schools. They later trained them to be scientists and doctors. This institute has gone through an array of names that include: The Negro Normal School in Tuskegee, the Tuskegee Negro Normal Institute and of course now Tuskegee University etcetera.
Washington died in 1915. By then, Tuskegee institute had over 200 staff and a population of 2000 students. Moreover, the institution had an endowment of more than $ 1,945,000. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial institute has grown over the years to Tuskegee University. He is remembered for being among the first blacks Americans’ leaders who influenced and his significant role in enlightening the African Americans to liberate themselves from centuries of slavery through education.
Works Cited
Mackintosh, Barry. Booker T. Washington: An Appreciation of the Man and His Times.
Washington, DC: Office of Publications, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the
Interior, 1972. Print.
McKissack, Patricia C. and Frederick McKissack, Jr. Booker T. Washington: Leader and
Educator. Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 2001. ISBN: 076601679X.
Print.
Toppin, Edgar A. A Biographical History of Blacks in American Since 1958. New York: David
McKay Company, 1971. Print.
Norrell, Robert, Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington, Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. 2009. Print
