After the American Civil War, Booker Taliaferro Washington is regarded as an important black leader. Being the child of a black mother and a Caucasian father, he was black. Although his mother worked as the cook on the farm, he hardly knew where his father was.
Booker's experiences growing up in Franklin County, West Virginia,'s slave quarters influenced his views on racism and enslavement. As a boy, he received no education and never had free time to play; instead, he was constantly given labor as a slave child. The surrounding in which he lived was characterized by poverty and slavery for the black man and land ownership to the whites. Booker lived in a cabin with an earthen floor with his mother, brother and sister, which also served as the kitchen for the plantation workers. He did not know his exact birth date, which fell in between 1858 and 1859. The African American civil rights movement occurred between 1865- 1896. It was a movement aimed at abolishing the slave trade and empower the African American community through education and offering them other necessary opportunities. It was after this civil war that Booker T Washington began his progress toward empowerment of the freed slaves, mainly through education.
One would expect that, after being subjected to slavery and poverty by the white community, Booker would always have resentment against the whites. It is however interesting to note that he did not hold resentment against his absent white father, but thought of him as a victim of the society they were caught up in, where racism was the norm. In his autobiography, Booker gives a perspective that is somewhat astounding about slavery. He explains even the white man was a subject of slavery, though the colored people experienced it first hand while working in the fields. He believed that the white man was enslaved by the slave labor system that ruled their lifestyle at that time. More importantly, the system denied them the opportunity to exercise self-reliance and pursuit of individual desires and limited them to being slave masters. The wives and daughters of the slave masters were unskilled in their tasks as women since all the work was left to the slave girls. Booker saw slavery and racism as a vice to all, and not only to the blacks. Booker advanced this thought of equality among both whites and blacks in many ways. He accommodated students from both races at Tuskegee Institute. He also adopted a moderate approach in his address to racial segregation, which earned him disfavor among blacks that wanted radical action to end it. He made friends with the white community, and in his speeches made it clear that racism was an institute that was supported by the government that needed to be abolished for the progress of all peoples, and not only the black community. Booker set to advance racial equality at a risky and unpredictable time in history.
As a boy, Booker wished to attend a school like the rest of the white community. The closest he had ever gone to a classroom was to the door, at times when he would carry books belonging to his mistresses. He and the colored people of his age had been captive of the system that denied privileges such as education and political rights. He got to quench this thirst for education, beginning with a tough Booker had a resolution while working at Tuskegee Institute of building up a school that would benefit the country so much that the President of the United States would be compelled to visit. This dream was achieved on 16th of December 1898 when, after visiting the President, President Mc Kinley, accompanied by his wife, all but one of the then cabinet officers along with their wives, visited the Tuskegee Institute. This was crowned with exceeding support from both the black and white communities of Atlanta, who worked as one team to decorate and organize the details of the Presidential visit. This also showed the fulfilment of Booker's ultimate dream of combating racism and instead promoting unity and equality among all the races.
One of the significant attributes that add to Booker's significance as an excellent Blacks leader is his journey through education. The fate that met all the slave children was illiteracy and lack of education opportunities. This changed however when slaves were freed after the Civil War. Booker began with learning to read a spelling book brought by his mother without the help of a teacher. He experienced several setbacks and challenges including being held back from school by his father to work in the salt mines. Afterwards, he was allowed to attend school after some hours of work and was regularly absent. He managed to join the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, after days of travelling without money or accommodation. There he was taught under the mentorship of General Samuel C. Armstrong. He worked as a janitor in order to pay for his accommodation fees. He returned in 1879 to teach at Hampton. He was recommended shortly afterward to be a teacher at a proposed normal school in Tuskegee. His work there began in June of 1881 and officially opened the school in July 1881.
When freedom came, and slavery ended, another problem faced the now freed slaves. This was the realization that they only had skills for working in the plantations, with no schooling and lived in poverty. They had little since it had always been whites that owned land and all the other privileges in the society. Booker founded the Tuskegee Institute mainly to educate illiterate colored people.
The Tuskegee Institute became the primary platform for which Booker demonstrated his prowess as a leader for blacks. He began by researching on the condition of the families around the area and noting the levels of education and their living standards. After advertising the institute in the area, the school began with him being the only teacher. The students had to do domestic and other work such as constructing their buildings. With continued support from his wife, friends, and both the white and black community in the region, he was able to raise funds for the institute. Tuskegee Institute was more than a school like what we have in our society whereby specific disciplines are studied and specialized in. While beginning the school, Booker had gone around the region of Alabama and assessed the situation of the people who were to attend the school. He had to make innovative adjustments to cater for their condition. The attendees came from abject poverty, were mostly beyond the age of school beginners and had minimal background on education. Booker used his experience at Hampton to create a program whereby some students studied at daytime, while others worked and studied part-time in order to find accommodation fees. They also had to do domestic work and construct portions of their school on their own. Basic knowledge such as hygiene, table manners, and housework was taught to bridge the gap between the social life adopted from slavery and that of the educated whites. The school enabled many poor students to graduate and gain skills that would help them gain jobs.
In the political field, Booker used his gift of speeches to address the plight of colored people. He believed that the fame and recognition he received for his achievements as an educator and civil rights activist was a tool to be used to do well, especially for other people.He used public speaking opportunities to condemn the black segregation while at the same time soliciting support from the white community for the Tuskegee Institute. Through these speeches, he managed to change the mindset and beliefs of the whites concerning blacks. The whites had at first viewed the movement to come up with schools for the blacks as a challenge to their position in the society. They had in mind, according to Booker, an educated black man who was going to be a rival to them in social, political and economic aspects. His choice of words, however, caused them to see the colored people in a new perspective; one who moved them to efforts that would improve their lives through educational and social support. His speeches were commented in newspapers that were widely read in the country, including the New York World. This impact was also felt when he visited Europe in 1899, where many newspapers expressed his views on racism. This shows his significance as a black's leader, not only in America but of the Black community universally. He was privileged to meet with Queen Victoria and attended the House of Commons on many times. This should be understood as a significant step to the end of racism, given that in the recent past, white would not interact on equal levels with a "negro" at any given circumstance, whether in sports, politics, social events or social life. While in Europe, one of his primary political influences included convincing members of the House of Commons of the futility in the attempts to send the American black person back to Africa in the name of offering them a better life. His speeches were solely for a better future for the colored people, and not for commercial gain or as mere lectures. The most memorable speech made by Booker was the Atlanta Exposition Address was. There he was asked to speak as a representative of the Negro race. His address was one of the first where a black could freely address the white community and mention support for the black community.
Conclusion
Booker endured through tough dreadful times, sometimes as dark as the coal mines he once worked in, and in the end left a legacy of being one of the most influential black leader and educator of his time. To crown his dream for education, Mr. Booker was surprised to be called in 1896 to be awarded a Master of Arts degree along with famous persons including Dr. Bell who invented the telephone at Harvard University. The ultimate dreams of Booker T Washington were achieved and even exceeded in the continuation of Tuskegee Institute until its upgrade to Tuskegee University, and at the end of black segregation and the empowerment of the black community through education, thereby adding to his justification as a leader for the blacks in his time.
