Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was a great leader. He was all for helping the black community become stronger. His goal was very hard to achieve considering the period in which he lived. America, during Washington's time was under reconstruction. The Civil War was over and blacks were, by law, equal to any other human being. Slavery was abolished and many southerners had a problem with that. To many whites, black people didn't deserve and weren't intellectually "ready" for such freedoms. The South had such a hard time accepting it that Union troops were stationed in southern states who couldn't cooperate. Booker T. Washington is a prime example to southerners who think that blacks can amount to nothing. In my paper I will talk to you about the many accomplishments he has made and the hardships that were attached to his achievements. As always a lot of people tried to pull Booker down. Some were even of the same race as Mr. Washington. But along the way a lot people helped Booker. Peo!ple who he helped, his family, his community, and others who felt he was just a really great guy. Booker T. Washington was born on April 5, 1856. Like many blacks around this time, he was born i
aid that I really did something with it. Washington has proven that anyone can do it. Even if your a slave and can get no poorer. All you have to do is believe in yourself because anything and everything is possible! Washington's persuasive powers brought some of his friends to the conclusion that he should practice law. Washington did but then stopped to help Armstrong. Armstrong had asked him to come to Hampton and deliver the coming commencement address. He did and entitled his speech, "The Force That Wins." Armstrong also asked Washington to become a member of his teachers staff. Armstrong was working on a program in he was teaching Native Americans the same type of training he taught African Americans. Washington said yes to that also and the program did work just as successful as it did with African Americans. Over the years Hampton improved germatically. One evening at the end of Washington's second year on the staff at Hampton, General Armstrong in the chapel a letter from Alabama requesting a teacher for a black school. The next morning the General asked Booker if he would take the assignment. Booker thought about it and then said yes. When he arrived in June of 1881, he brought ideas with him, from Hampton, that the whites and blacks of Macon, Alabama were very foreign to. You see lots of schools for blacks had the idea that teaching a New England style of teaching, like the kids in England were taught, to blacks would turn blacks into successful people. Booker had a different idea and style of teaching. His philosophy was that teaching blacks famous composers, arts, and history is necessary, but comes in time. The first thing adult blacks should be taught is a trade. Let them pick a trade in which they would like to work in. Most in those days picked farming. Washington felt it would be more beneficial if blacks were ta! an remember having any thoughts about anything, I recall that I had an intense desire to learn to read." Booker got his first classroom education in Malden. He attended the local school for black children a few hours during the day or night while still working full time in the mines. When asked by his first teacher for his name, the ten- year-old replied, "Booker Washington," taking as his last name the first name of his stepfather. Booker, years later added the middle name Taliaferro. Washington had become the national spokesman for the Black Race. His first trips to the north and the east established him as a speaker of uncommon ability's , and his reputation grew steadily, particularly n educational circles. In 1884, he addressed four thousand members of the National Education Association in Madison, Wisconsin. By 1888 he had served three terms as the president of the Alabama State Teachers' Association. In 1893 the Outlook, a popular magazine of the day, published his picture along with pictures of Eliot of Harvard, Dwight of Yale, and Potter of Princeton in a feature article on the nation's twenty-eight leading college presidents. He also stamped his name into people's life. He was asked to y the organizers of the Cotton States and International Exposition to deliver an address as a black representative to their industrial fair in Atlanta. The event was of unprecedented significance in the history of postwar southern racial politics. Washington used th! ught agriculture, or what-ever there trade was, so they can make more money on their crops. With teaching blacks these skills they are able to go somewhere in life. They're able to compete right along with the white man. Then once that it established, teacher's should go to work on other subjects. Washington f
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Approximate Word count = 2451
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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