the Unsung: Black History Month day 18- Booker T. Washington

Happy Saturday friends. For today we’re going to briefly cover Booker T. Washington.

Booker Taliaferro Washington, born in Virginia during slavery though he and his family moved to West Virginia following emancipation. Washington attended high school at the Hampton Institute and college what later became Virginia Union University.

On his efforts to attend school, History.com says this:

In Malden, Washington was only allowed to go to school after working from 4–9 AM each morning in a local salt works before class. It was at a second job in a local coalmine where he first heard two fellow workers discuss the Hampton Institute, a school for formerly enslaved people in southeastern Virginia founded in 1868 by Brigadier General Samuel Chapman. Chapman had been a leader of Black troops for the Union during the Civil War and was dedicated to improving educational opportunities for African Americans. In 1872, Washington walked the 500 miles to Hampton, where he was an excellent student and received high grades.

Washington placed a high value on education. He was recommended to be the head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama by General Chapman at the age of 25. He hired George Washington Carver (more on him later) to teach agriculture. Tuskegee itself became a large self regulated campus, built by hand by the community. It also boasted a large agriculture operation, involving livestock and produce.

Washington’s leadership garnered national attention. He gave a notorious “Atlanta Compromise” speech that advocated for Black self reliance and also suggested that the Black community be largely reserved in its demands related to political and social equality. Washington’s position created a powerful and long lasting intellectual rivalry with W.E.B Du Bois.

Washington espoused a reserved and separate community for Black Americans, and frowned on the subject of integration:

“The wisest of my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than to spend a dollar in an opera house.

Washington also believed in the dignity of work and wanted to provide vocational skills for the Black community overall. He earned considerable support for his education programs, and opened several more across the American South. He served as a political advisor to several American presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft. Washington was a stalwart Republican (Note that this is before the polarities of the Democratic and Republican parties shifted following integration).

Washington was the first Black American to dine at the White House, and was the guest of President Roosevelt. He was a prolific writer over the course of his life and published 20 books, including Up From Slavery which is still widely read today. He traveled extensively to the many institutions he oversaw. He ultimately died of congestive heart failure in 1915.

Washington’s legacy in hindsight is mixed at best. While he contributed enormously to the educational attainment of Black Americans at the turn of the century, his slow and steady approach to civil rights activism was offputting, especially to Northern Black activists of the day. He was a staunch advocate for the academic and economic betterment of Black America despite having some positions that have aged poorly over time.