Booker T. Washington

A detailed Summary of Booker T. Washington

Born a slave, Booker T. Washington rose to become a commonly recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Washington continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and women how they too could raise themselves. Washington's method of uplifting was education of the head, the hand, and the heart. From his founding of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in 1915 Booker T. Washington exerted a tremendous influence on the people that surrounded him. With his emphasis on industrial education Washington's approach gave African-Americans hope of accomplishment and success.

Growing up in Franklin County, Virginia, Booker was a young slave living on a plantation in a cold, dismal cabin with his mother being the plantation cook. He struggled through the hardships not unlike all the other slaves in the country. Booker T. Washington did not know his own father, which sounds very terrible, but was nothing unusual to young children of enslaved mothers. However Booker's thoughts and feelings were different from what you'd suspect. Booker states, " I do not find especial fault with him (his father). He was simply another unfortu

Booker T. Washington had visions of equality for the black and white race, but his visions were somewhat different from that of the norm. He wanted to build up the black race slowly, knowing that equality was not to be achieved overnight. He taught blacks the power of knowledge and hard work to which they could gain a respect from their former masters of this country, and prove to them that they could live together and help out each other. He didn't want to be better than the white man, he didn't even dislike the white man, he just wanted to prove to the white man that a black man can have just as good of a heart. Washington took the positive factors out of everything in life, whether good or bad, and paved the way for a non-segregated country. He has no remorse for anything that has happened to his race, infect he says it best when he states, "Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did."(13)

nate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at the time."(4)

Washington felt Industrial education was a foundation. From it would come the professional positions of responsibility, wealth, and leisure. His way was to combine industrial training with mental and moral culture. He observed that the need to take care of one's body and property and to have an economic foundation was more important than memorizing facts and readings of Latin and Greek. That's why Washington stressed cleanliness, personal neatness, also housekeeping and mechanical skills.

The greatest benefit in my mind that Washington received from Hampton was his attitude toward education which changed form the common idea that education would free one from manual labor, to love of labor, self-reliance, and usefulness, an unselfishness that strives to do the most to make others useful and happy. When Washington experienced this himself, he could take what he learned and lead others through more practical education.

Booker T. Washington was infatuated with learning ever since his childhood slave days.

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Approximate Word count = 1474
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People