Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliafero Washington rose from slavery to a position of power and influence. A realist and a man of action, he became one of the most important African-American leaders of his time. He was committed to improving the lives of African-Americans after the Civil War. Washington advocated economic independence through self-help, hard work, and a practical education. His drive and vision built Tuskegee into a major African-American presence and place of learning.
Up From Slavery
Washington was “born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia…” (Up From Slavery) in 1856. After emancipation, he and his family moved to Malden, West Virginia. The nearby Kanawha Sapines salt furnaces provided wage work for many freed slaves in West Virginia, including members of Washington’s family. A prominent white family, the Ruffners, hired the young Washington as a domestic. Washington later said the lessons he learned from them were “… as valuable to me as any education I have gotten anywhere since.”
The young Booker first went to school, not as a student, but to carry his young mistress’ books to class. Later he attended night school while working in the salt furnace. Washington thought that getting an education was “about the same as getting into paradise.”
In 1872 he enrolled at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Hampton, Virginia. The school trained former slaves in the trades, industriousness, and thrift. An outstanding student, Washington graduated at the top of his class, and then taught in Malden and at Hampton.
Personal Life
Washington married three times. A private and complex man, he had the trauma of losing two wives. He married one of his Malden school pupils, Fanny Norton Smith in 1882. Their daughter Portia was born in 1883. Fanny died in 1884.
He then married Olivia Davidson in 1885. A Hampton graduate, Olivia was the assistant principal of Tuskegee. She had great influence on Washington and the development of his Northern philanthropic support. They had two sons, Booker T. Washington, Jr. and Ernest Davidson Washington. Olivia died in 1889.
Washington then married Margaret James Murray in 1892. A teacher, Margaret became the Lady Principal of Tuskegee after Olivia’s death. Margaret and Booker did not have children. In addition to her professional role on campus, Margaret ran a home for the entire Washington family at The Oaks. She died in 1925.
Building a University
At 25, Washington was appointed principal of the newly established “Tuskegee Normal School for colored teachers.” There were no buildings when he arrived. On July 4, 1881, Washington held his first classes for thirty male and female students in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a shanty. The first permanent building was constructed a year later. It was designed by African-American instructors and built by African-American students, a tradition that would thrive at Tuskegee. In 1885 the first students graduated.
Washington was determined to bring the best and brightest teachers to Tuskegee “not only for the money but also their deep interest in the race.” Tuskegee embodied his total commitment to learning, self-help, practical training, and service to the community. Teachers trained to work with rural communities to improve farming, hygiene, and nutrition. Agricultural training provided experience and food for the table. Students learned trades to make them marketable and self-supporting. Tuskegee taught “classroom education …practical knowledge, industry, thrift, and economy, that they (students) would be sure of knowing how to make a living after they had left us.”
Washington traveled extensively to solicit funds. His achievements at Tuskegee earned the articulate educator widespread support. An assertive, hands-on principal, Washington attended to every detail, from overseeing faculty and students, to school publications. He monitored the quality of instruction, inspected campus grounds and buildings, and scrutinized students. Washington personally made sure that Tuskegee maintained its excellent reputation.
Farmers’ Conferences
Booker T. Washington sought new ways to reach struggling local farmers. He believed that with the right guidance, farmers could make improvements, free themselves from debt, and become land owners. Over 400 attended the first Tuskegee Negro Conference in February 1892.
Later, George Washington Carver, whom Washington had hired as the Institute’s agricultural director, expanded the conference. Farmers and their wives received specific information on farming and nutrition. The message was one of self-sufficiency, self-improvement and agricultural diversification.
Carver saw some of his students only once a year. The part-time students were the local farmers and their wives who attended the annual Farmers’ Conference. They shared successes and failures of the previous growing year, toured the Experiment Station, and got practical suggestions from Carver.
In 1904 Carver instituted the first “Short Course in Agriculture” in conjunction with the Conference. The course provided intensive agricultural training to full-time farmers for one week.
Tuskegee Institute
Lewis Adams, a former slave and successful tradesman, was the founding force behind the establishment of a school at Tuskegee. He made a deal to deliver African-American voters in the 1880 election. In return, the Alabama legislature passed a bill to “establish a Normal School for colored teachers at Tuskegee.” He insisted on having an African-American principal and Booker T. Washington was hired.
Adams, together with George Campbell, a former slave owner, were responsible for bringing Booker T. Washington to Tuskegee. Adams bought a “good” horse, second hand lumber wagon, a plow, harness, and feed for the school.
Using his outstanding fundraising capabilities and negotiating skills, Washington purchased an abandoned plantation of 1,000 acres. The plantation became the nucleus of Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee University’s present campus. By 1906, the school had 156 faculty members, 1,590 students, and owned 2,300 acres of land. Although Tuskegee Institute receives an appropriation from the State of Alabama, the school remains a private institution.
Washington brought the best African-American professionals to join him in his life’s work at Tuskegee. Botanist George Washington Carver, Robert Taylor, the first black architect to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and David A. Williston, one of the first black landscape architects in America, were faculty members. Washington appointed highly skilled industrial instructors to teach trades. Emmett Jay Scott became Booker T. Washington’s secretary in 1897. Scott became a close advisor to the man he called ‘the Wizard’ and was instrumental in extending Washington’s power and influence.
In the late 1930s, the military selected Tuskegee to train African-American pilots because of its committment to aeronautical training. It had instructors, facilities, and a climate for year-round flying.
In 1965, Tuskegee Institute was designated a national historic landmark in recognition of its contributions and advancements in education. Congress authorized the establishment of Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in 1974. The National Historic Site includes The Oaks, Booker T. Washington’s home, and the Carver Museum.
Tuskegee Students
Students were taught, in addition to their academic subjects, skills in building construction, brick making, woodworking, cooking, handicraft, agriculture, and the blacksmith trade. Student life was regulated and controlled by separating activities and training for men and women. Physical training was encouraged. The Tuskegee doctrine of work required a healthy body. Tuskegee also recognized the moral and spiritual value of religious worship. Students attended daily non-denominational chapel services.
Female students learned home economics, dressmaking and weaving. They made brooms, rugs, hats, chairs, baskets, and soap. For many years, the products of this practical training dressed the students and furnished Tuskegee rooms.
Student teachers did practice teaching at the Children’s House. Built in 1901, it was the elementary school for children of teachers and townspeople. Children learned gardening and farming on the two acres around the house. Students were also taught the basics of proper housework, including cooking and gardening.
Bricklaying, a practical, productive skill, was taught. The Tuskegee brickyard produced enough bricks to sell the surplus to the community and provide the school with an income. Brick making, begun in 1883 was not an instant success. Only after ruining many bricks did the novice brick makers finally master the craft. Tuskegee students used brick fired from clay dug on the Tuskegee farm to erect many of the school’s buildings.
A broad range of mechanical industries were taught, including electrical engineering, carpentry woodworking, roofing, and printing. The print shop served two purposes. It provided training for students and supplied the school with needed products.
Influential Spokesman
With mesmerizing oratory and an energetic speaking schedule, Washington became a major spokesman for his people. A skilled politician, he developed relationships with blacks, whites, farmers and businessmen in the North and the South.
Washington’s controversial Atlanta Exposition speech in 1895 appeared to support separate development as a “necessary condition for economic cooperation between the races.” He said “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet as one hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” The speech brought him fame as well as criticism. Many believe that Washington’s address laid the ground for state supported segregation. Dedicated to the continued existence of Tuskegee, Washington secretly supported many black causes for equality. For Washington, education and hard work led to economic independence, and then to political rights.
The former slave became a major political force. Many considered him Frederick Douglass’ heir. While politicians and presidents sought him out, some in the African-American community, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, criticized the extent and use of his power and influence. President William McKinley visited Tuskegee. In 1901, Washington dined at the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt. He informally advised Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.
Washington authored and coauthored many books that reflected his ideas on education and society. Up From Slavery, his autobiography written in 1900, has been translated into many languages. It inspired oppressed peoples throughout the world. He was awarded many honorary degrees, including degrees from Harvard and Dartmouth Universities. The American people recognized his extraordinary achievements with a commemorative US postage stamp in 1940; in 1956 when his birthplace became Booker T. Washington National Monument; and again in 1974, when his residence at Tuskegee Institute, The Oaks, became part of the NPS Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site.
The Oaks
The Oaks was Washington’s command center and Tuskegee Institute’s social center. The Oaks, Washington’s home, provided tangible evidence of his success. It was a place of employment and an on-the-job training site for students. African-American educators, businessmen, and farmers were entertained there. Professional staff visited frequently. Faculty members often called on Sunday afternoons but Washington often “cloistered himself in his office on Sunday afternoons, while his wife Margaret was entertaining young faculty members in the parlor.”
The Oaks, “a large comfortable home,” was built for Washington and his family. They moved into the house in 1900. Washington lived there until his death in 1915. His widow, Margaret, lived at The Oaks until her death in 1925. Most furnishings were made by local craftsmen and students, and were acquired between 1885-1889. The Queen Anne style red brick house, with steam heating and electricity, was the first of its kind in Macon County. The Washingtons visited Europe the year construction began. The friezes in the parlor and library depict highlights of their trip. The house had a parlor, library, dining room, den, kitchen, family and guest rooms, breakfast room, five bathrooms, and veranda. The Oaks sat on three acres of gardens, orchards, and pastures.
Tuskegee’s 25th anniversary in 1906 brought prominent people to The Oaks, including Secretary of War William Howard Taft, Harvard president Charles W. Eliot, and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The Oaks housed a reception for President Theodore Roosevelt and another for the wedding of Washington’s daughter, Portia.
After a grueling speaking tour, Washington was hospitalized in New York City. Desparately ill with what some now believe to be kidney failure and with a short time to live, he said, “I was born in the South, I have lived and labored in the South, and I expect to be buried in the South.” He insisted on going home. On November 14, 1915, Booker T. Washington died at his beloved Tuskegee Institute.
From: American Visionaries – from the National Park Service