Happy Black History Month ❤
Booker T. Washington (April 5, 1856—November 14, 1915)
"Booker Taliaferro Washington's life had little promise early on...Booker's mother, Jane, worked as a cook for plantation owner James Burroughs. His father was an unknown white man, most likely from a nearby plantation. Booker's first exposure to education was from the outside of school house near the plantation; looking inside, he saw children his age sitting at desks and reading books. He wanted to do what those children were doing, but he was a slave, and it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write... Booker's mother noticed his interest in learning and got him a book from which he learned the alphabet and how to read and write basic words. [The Civil War ended in 1865.]
In 1866, Booker T. Washington got a job as a houseboy for Viola Ruffner... she saw something in Booker—his maturity, intelligence and integrity—and soon warmed up to him. Over the two years he worked for her, she understood his desire for an education and allowed him to go to school for an hour a day during the winter months... In 1872, he convinced administrators to let him attend the school [Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute] and took a job as a janitor to help pay his tuition...Booker T. Washington graduated from Hampton in 1875 with high marks..." In 1881, he started the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. "Under Booker T. Washington's leadership, Tuskegee became a leading school in the country. Washington put much of himself into the school's curriculum, stressing the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift... Many Southern whites, including some prominent members of Congress, saw Washington's success as an affront and called for action to put African Americans 'in their place'... Booker T. Washington remained the head of Tuskegee Institute until his death." (Biography.com)
Mr. Washington was an adviser to presidents Theodore Roosevelt & William Taft. "He called for Black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation..." (Wikipedia.org)
Autobiography: "Up From Slavery" (1901)
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