Booker T. Washington

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, during a time when many African-Americans believed that only book education would grant them equality, Booker T. Washington, who led the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, startled the country by implying that his race would only achieve equality through a fusion of physical labor, personal hygiene and book education. The author points out that many of the students, who once were slaves, entered the Tuskegee Institute unaware that they should bathe everyday or even how to bathe. The paper relates that, although Washington was criticized by many, especially W.E.B. Du Bois, for not demanding total black equality and freedom, Washington chose to build character, self-esteem and self-reliance in every student, enabling them to become whole, spiritually and scholastically.

From the Paper:

"Shortly after Tuskegee was opened, Washington purchased a field, enabling the students to obtain skills in agriculture and produce their own food. Washington spoke of a certain student who had grown sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes from one acre of land, where the average bushel was only forty-nine. The student was able to accomplish this because he had acquired the knowledge of both the chemistry of the soil and of advanced methods of agriculture. Many of the white farmers had approached this student inquiring about the raising of sweet potatoes, respecting him because he had contributed to the growth and wealth of the community. Washington explained, " my theory of education for the Negro would not, for example, confine him for all time to farm life...but that if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the foundations upon which his children and grandchildren could grow to higher and more important things in life.""

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