BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington

Introduction

Though Booker T. Washington was born during slavery, he was very young when slavery ended. I don't know if he was considered a slave, amongst slaves, however the hell that he went through during this time period should not go unnoticed; a slave of society of sorts.

Motivated by education and a pure sense of righteousness, Washington was determined to become an educated man. Through the education of himself, he in-turn would attempt to educate not only blacks, but others, as well (Virginia, 1993).

Discussion

Booker T. Washington was born on a plantation as the son of a slave. After the Civil War, his family moved to West Virginia where he, as well as his stepfather and brother worked in the salt furnace and the coal mines. Booker would attend school whenever he could, hardly finding time for sleep. In 1872, he scraped up enough money and traveled to the Hampton Institute for further education (Arna, 2002). There, he did just about any job that was available in order for him to attend this school. Sometimes only living on the bread of his determination as food. After doing this for approximately three years, most of the time holding a job as the school janitor, he taught for two years in his hometown of Malden, West Virginia, then studied at Wayland Seminary, in Washington D.C. He then returned to Hampton where he taught for two years and was instrumental in organizing a night school. There, he was in charge of the industrial training of approximately 75 American Indians. At the Hampton night school, Washington was so successful that the founder of Hampton, General Samuel Armstrong, appointed him as the principal of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama (Frederick, 2005). While at Tuskegee, he made the Institute into a major center for industrial and agricultural training. He also became well-known for his public speaking.

Booker T. Washington was one of the most influential black leaders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who advocated black accommodation to the white population of America, along with an emphasis on industrial education and personal hygiene for the African-American. He advised black Americans to give up dreams of political power, civil rights, and the higher education of their youth and instead focus gaining low-level jobs, working hard, and achieving acceptance in the eyes of the white man (Michael, 2008). In Washington's most famous speech, the "Atlanta Compromise," he states that, "In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress". Ellison refers to this theory with his description of his grandparents lives in Invisible Man, "they were told that they were free, united with others of our country in everything pertaining to the common good, and, in everything social, separate like the fingers of the hand, And they believed it. They exulted in it (Rebecca, 2006). They stayed in their place, worked hard and brought up my father to ...