Vince Pullen, age 14, of Dayton, Ohio, for his question:
WHO WAS BOOKER T. WASHINGTON?
Booker T. Washington was an extremely influential black educator and social leader. He became prominent because of his role as founder and head of the Tuskegee Institute, a vocational school for blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Washington was an adviser on political and racial problems to both Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. He also influenced the appointment of a number of blacks to federal office.
Washington was born a slave in 1856. When the United States government freed all slaves in 1865, Washington’s family moved to West Virginia where he was able to attend the Hampton Institute, an industrial school for blacks. He became a teacher at the institute in 1879.
In 1881, Washington founded and became the principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. The name was later changed to Tuskegee Institute. The school taught specific trades such as carpentry, farming and mechanics, and it also trained teachers.
Under Washington’s leadership, Tuskegee Institute became famous as a model of industrial education. Many black student from rural areas of the South were benefited.
Washington believed that the development of work skills would lead to economic prosperity for the students who had lived in poverty. He predicted that blacks would be granted civil and political rights after gaining strong economic foundations.
Although Washington remained a powerful leader until his death in 1915, his influence started to decline by about 1910. He was criticized chiefly by a historian and sociologist named W.E.B. DuBois.
DuBois supported higher education for talented blacks who could serve as leaders. He feared that the success of Washington’s industrial school would limit the development of true higher education for blacks.
Washington owned or financially supported many black newspapers across the country.
Washington headed the Tuskegee Institute from 1881 until 1915, and through the years he did a great deal to help members of his race. He was truly the foremost black leader of his time and he paved the way for new leaders that came along later.
His critic DuBois and others began new movements. These movements led to the creation of such organizations as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League.
Washington described his own rise from slavery to national prominence as an educator in his best selling autobiography, “Up from Slavery.” It was published in 1901.