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Booker T. Washington April 5, 1856- November 14, 1915 Sarah Vesel and Jake Ho Early Years

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Booker T. Washington April 5, 1856- November 14, 1915 Sarah Vesel and Jake Ho Early Years Booker T. Washington April 5, 1856- November 14, 1915 Sarah Vesel and Jake Ho Early Years ● James and Elizabeth Burroughs moved to Franklin 1850 County, Virginia. ● With them, they brought slaves to work on the farm including Jane, the plantation cook. ● Booker Taliaferro was born April 5th. 1856 ● Jane mothered 2 other children while on this plantation. ● He and his family lived in a small log cabin that doubled as the kitchen for the farm. Early Years ● The Civil War began and Virginia seceded from the 1861 Union. Many of the men on the plantation enlisted. ● Booker said life on the farm was easy because they didn’t have to live up to the luxuries that the North brought. ● Marks the end of the Civil War -- a time where slaves 1865 had the opportunity to do the things they always wanted. For Booker, he desired to get an education. ● Jane took her family to Malden, West Virginia where her husband found work on a coal mine. ● In the following years, Booker took on jobs packing salt, coal mining, and was a houseboy. Education ● Booker gave himself the surname “Washington” when he started going to school around age 10. ● In 1872, at age sixteen, he traveled to Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and with the help of the principal, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, was admitted after an interesting entrance exam.He worked on campus as a janitor for room and board. ● He graduated in 1875 with honors and returned to Malden. ● He was a student at Wayland Seminary, an institution with a curriculum that was entirely academic. This experience reinforced his belief in an educational system that emphasized practical skills and self-help. Professional ● Washington taught at his former grade school in Malden before returning to teach at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. ● He went to Alabama and founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1881, now known as Tuskegee University. ● He carried the role of black adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. ● Dr. Booker T. Washington took pride knowing that he could have still been the property of someone else and might never have been allowed to gain an education and be a noted educator, orator, author and advisor to U.S. presidents. ● Washington's philosophy was to provide opportunities for African Americans who had been enslaved to now gain an education. Personal ● Washington was married three times. In 1882, he married his Malden sweetheart, Fannie N. Smith. She died two years later, leaving an infant daughter, Portia. ● In 1885, Washington married Olivia Davidson, who died in 1889. Two sons were born to this marriage: Booker Taliaferro, Jr. and Ernest Davidson. ● In 1893, Washington was married Margaret Murray, who had come to Tuskegee as lady principal in 1889. ● Margaret and her husband's three children and four grandchildren survived Washington, who died November 14, 1915, at age fifty-nine of arteriosclerosis and exhaustion. ● Washington's funeral was attended by nearly 8,000 people. He was buried in a brick tomb, made by students, on a hill commanding a view of the entire Tuskegee campus. Works ● He published 14 books and countless in newspapers and magazines, speeches too. ○ Up From Slavery ○ The Future of the American Negro ○ The Story of My Life and Work ○ Character Building ○ The Negro in the South ○ Tuskegee and Its people. ○ Working with the Hands. “The Atlanta Compromise” (1895) ● “The Atlanta Compromise,” is a term coined by W.E.B Du Bois because. ● A speech given at Atlanta in front of an audience that was mainly white. ● “ Cast down your buckets where you are,” ○ He tells his race to stop fantasizing about the north, or wherever else. ○ Just take what you have and make the best of it. “The Atlanta Compromise” (1895) ● “Separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” ○ Basically, his rejection of political and social equality. ○ He simply wanted the blacks in the south to co-exist. ■ W.E.B Du Bois rolled his eyes so hard the earth stopped rolling. (figuratively) ● Du Bois really didn’t like how “gentle” Washington was, and called his conviction for change weak. ● Washington was more passive than Du Bois Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (1901) ● His arguably most important piece. ● Covers his time as a slave up to his time establishing vocational schools, a period of approx 40 years. ○ The vocational schools he established were meant for African Americans to “pull themselves up by the bootstrap” ○ He wanted people to have both an education and skills of a trade. ● Emphasized heavily on education. ● Argued the oppression of his race rested heavily on the morals of the whites, so no sides was clean. His views: a summary. ● All of his ideology were hella controversial, extra emphasis on “hella” ○ Black people should be rising past slavery. ■ Basically tells black people to stop grieving and to get over it. ● 1911, My Larger Education ○ Education would be the key tool, mixed with skills of trades. ○ The south could benefit from using black people, because they have unmatched loyalty. ■ As shown by how they stayed “loyal” as slaves. ○ It’s “pointless” to fight segregation. ○ White people are setting themselves back with oppression. Influences and Influenced. Samuel Chapman Armstrong - educational philosophy MLK- MLK liked that though his ideas were controversial, he still pushed for peace. Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft- BtW was the “chief black advisor” to them from 1901 on. Sources: http://www.newrepublic.com/book/review/my-view-segregation-laws http://www.btwsociety.org/library/books/Up_From_Slavery/ http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/ http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/40 http://americanvision.org/5276/booker-t-washington-on-black-victimhood/ http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/legacy_of_leadership/booker_t_washington.aspx http://www.biography.com/people/booker-t-washington-9524663#education http://www.nps.gov/bowa/a-birthplace-that-experienced-slavery-the-civil-war-and-emancipation.htm.
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