Booker T' Washington

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Booker T. Washington

• Enrichment Activity
• Secondary Gifted Program
• Fall 2006

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Timeline

• 1858
• Washington was born a slave on the Burroughs farm
  in Franklin County, Virginia.

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1865

• Washington listened as the Emancipation
  Proclamation was read to joyful slaves in front
  of the Burroughs home. His family moved to West
  Virginia, where nine-year-old Booker got a job in
  a salt mine. He went to work at 4am so he could
  go to school later in the day.

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1872

• A wealthy woman hired Booker as a houseboy, and
  she encouraged him to learn. At age 16, Booker
  walked back to Virginia to enroll in the Hampton
  Institute, a new school for blacks.

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1881

• By the time he was 25, Washington was recognized
  at the nations leading black educator. After
  teaching at Hampton, he founded the Tuskegee
  Institute in Alabama to teach trades and
  occupations to young black students.

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1895

• In the Atlanta Compromise address, Washington
  urged blacks to accommodate the prevailing policy
  of social segregation, and to focus first on
  becoming productive members of society by
  learning the skills for jobs.

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Post-1895

• Washington was criticized by his critics, such as
  W.E.B. DuBois, who argued for immediate social
  equality.
• Washington believed he needed the support of
  whites to fund Tuskegee, but we now know he also
  secretly funded antisegregationalist activities.

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1908

• The Roanoke Times printed a story about Booker T.
  Washingtons visit to the former James Burroughs
  tobacco farm, where he was born a slave.
• Descendants of the Burroughs family met him
  during the visit. One remembered playing with
  him when they were boys.

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1915

• In 1915, Washington had moved away from his
  conservative stand. He joined his former critics
  to protest the way black stereotypes were used to
  portray black people in the movie, Birth of a
  Nation.
• Later the same year, Booker T. Washington died at
  age 59.

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Washingtons Legacy

• Booker T. Washington is remembered for
• Helping black Americans rise up from the
  economic slavery that held them down long after
  they were legally free citizens.
• www.nps.gov

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In His Own Words

• The early years of my life, which were spent in
  the little cabin, were not very different from
  those of other slaves.

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• I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse
  and study would be about the same as getting into
  paradise.

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• There was no period of my life that was devoted
  to play. From the time that I can remember
  anything, almost everyday of my life has been
  occupied in some kind of labor.

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• The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory
  just now is worth infinitely more than the
  opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house.

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• In industry the foundation must be laid (for)
  habits of thrift, a love of work, ownership of
  property, (and) bank accounts.

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• From some things I have said one may get the
  idea that some of the slaves did not want
  freedom. This is not true. I have never seen
  one who did not want to be free, or one who would
  return to slavery.

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Assignment

• In small groups, come up with a slogan that you
  believe summarizes Booker T. Washingtons life
  and accomplishments.