Booker T Washington Research Paper

Introduction Booker T. Washington was an African American who was born in 1856 into a slave family in Virginia. While Washington was still a young child the family moved to Malden, West Virginia where Washington learned little English and writing by the mine owner that his father worked for. Washington received little education but used his determination to attend college at the newly opened Hampton Institute, which was one of the earliest freedman’s schools devoted to industrial learning. While attending college at Hampton Institute the president of the institute Samuel Armstrong came intrigued with Washington and saw his potential and came under the tutelage of Armstrong. Armstrong’s purpose of Hampton Institute was to educate “freed slaves

Washington created the Tuskegee Institute where he put much of his time into “the schools curriculum, stressing the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift (Biography of Booker T. Washington, 2017)” leading to the success of becoming a leading school in Alabama, and increasing enrollment from “169 in 1884, to 712 in 1994 (Booker T. Washington, 2009)” relating directly to the success brought to Alabama by Washington. The curriculum created by Washington was a direct resemblance of the “pragmatic philosophy that he received at Hampton Institute (Booker T. Washington, 2009).” Classes at Tuskegee offered classes that aligned with Washington’s beliefs that “all training derived from its purpose from real problems” and “could be used to elevate the conditions of the individual students as well as the entire community when they graduated from Tuskegee (Biography of Booker T. Washington, 2017)” Washington was also known for his “educational advancements and attempts to promote economic self-reliance among African Americans (Biography of Booker T. Washington, 2017).” One of Washington’s controversial beliefs during the time was that he believed that “African Americans should accept disenfranchisement and social segregation as long as whites allowed economic progress, educational opportunity, and justice in the courts (Biography of Booker T. Washington, 2017).” During the time this was a very controversial belief and started a firestorm with other progressive educators including Du Bois. Du Bois criticized Washington’s ideas by “not demanding equality for African Americans as granted by the 14th amendment (Biography of Booker T. Washington, 2017).” Although Washington and Du Bois had opposing views they both took their ideas about urban schools, students, citizens to make changes that are still seen in our society