Booker T. Washington Presented by Reed Wolonsky

Background: There is no question that Booker T. Washington was the best- known African American of his time in the World. Born a slave on a 207 acre Virginia plantation on April 5, 1856 he became known as a great educator and speaker. His mother was a cook and his father was a white man from another farm. Even though he had to work as a servant everyday he was allowed to attend school. In 1872 he befriended the founder of the all black college Hampton Institute and was given a scholarship to attend. He then went on to teach at Hampton until General Samuel Armstrong appointed him to be the head of a new college in Alabama, Tuskegee Institute. Even with his humble beginnings and being raised during one of the most racially charged periods in the U.S. Booker T. Washington became successful thorough his own hard work which influenced his thinking and approach to equality for African Americans.

Achievements: Founder of the Tuskegee Institute. Founder of the National Negro Business League. First person in the U.S. to speak about black issues at an international conference. First African American to dine with both the President at the White House and the Queen in Buckingham Palace. First African American who appears on a postage stamp and a coin. First African American to have a naval ship named after him.

“Up from Slavery” Booker T. Washington tells his life story from being a slave to being an educator. This book gives you great insight into the reasons he was courageous, self- motivated and ambitious. “Up from Slavery” is as important today as it was when Washington wrote it in African Americans continue confront similar obstacles of education, family structure and discrimination that he faced from his childhood.

Discussion: Booker T. Washington most famous speech “the Atlanta Compromise” in 1895 set the stage for him to be view as the national leader and spokesman for African Americans. In his speech he encouraged African Americans to accept the political and social status quo of segregation and discrimination. He promoted the idea of advancing their lives thorough hard work as the path African Americans should take to gain economic success. He believed that to be accepted by white southerners African Americans needed to become more skillful in agriculture, mechanics and domestic service. That working together as a race they could gain equality.

Additionally, in his speech, which was given to an almost completely white audience, he eased whites fears of African Americans desire for social integration. In his speech he stated, “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.” Other great African American community leaders did not accept booker T. Washington’s thinking. Racial thinkers received Washington’s ideas as a complete surrender and demanded civil and political equality. In this nation today this argument continues on. Even Martin Luther King, who like Booker T. Washington believed in approaches to confronting the color line be positive and nonviolent. King did believe that equality was going to come only by resistance. King did not think that being accepted into the working world would be enough to gain equal rights. Toward the end of his life, Booker T. Washington said, "more and more, we must learn to think not in terms of race or color, or language, or religion, or political boundaries, but in terms of humanity". How true this is today, even with a black President, the struggle between whites and blacks can be seen on the streets of America, in the courts and jails and unemployment lines. The Trayvon Martin killing revealed the startling fact that there is a deep, widespread and painful discrimination that continues in this country. It is my opinion that we are not living in the colorblind, post-racial society we hoped the election of President Obama would bring. Mainly, when success is divided along color lines.

Sources: Frontline, Booker T & W.E.B /road.html History Matters, W.E.B DuBois Critques Booker T. Washington U.S. History Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium History Matters, “Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are” Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech