Booker Washington Influence

“I will allow no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him (Booker T. Washington).” Booker Taliaferro Washington was one of the foremost African-American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Virginia born and educated he was from the last generation of African American leaders born into slavery. He would become the voice of former slaves as well as their descendants. An advocate for education as well as an accomplished writer and political advisor the impact he had on the world was definitely felt.

Booker was born to a slave by the name of Jane Ferguson who worked as a cook for the Burroughs family. He was born April 5,1856 in Hales Ford, Virginia and because his mother was a slave that naturally made him one. There

He came back to Virginia in 1872 to attend Hampton Institute to pursue higher education. He had worked in the salt furnace and coal mines of West Virginia saving his money for this very moment. The Hampton Institute was designed to provide education to those who had been former slaves. Hampton Institute changed its name and today is now known as Hampton University. Attending this college would turn out to be one of the most important steps of his life. While he was in school he worked as a janitor to help pay for his studies. While there he learned agriculture, brick masonry, and the standard academic subjects taught at Hampton. He also soaked up the teachings of his mentor General Armstrong who shared character building and the importance of education with him. General Armstrong was the principal of Hampton Institute when Washington attended and thought very highly of him. Booker T. would graduate in 1875 returning back to West Virginia eager to share what he learned taught in their school system for three years. He attended seminary school but decided that it wasn’t for him. Just four years after graduation he was invited back to Hampton run the night school. As was expected of him he performed his duties with no problem and set a high standard. Because of his work Armstrong recommended him to become the leader of a newly formed college in Alabama. Washington would accept the offer only to

Because of his exposure on the circuit it drew attention and money to Tuskegee Institute and allowed the black educator to articulate his philosophy and thoughts on racial advancement. In one of his most notable addresses of 1884 to the National Education Association Washington relayed that education for Negroes was pertinent and "brains, property, and character “as the key to black advancement and acceptance by white southerners. This speech would foreshadow the racial compromises he would preach for the rest of his life. Full political and social equality would result in all due time, he maintained. he Atlanta Compromise speech unquestionably secured Washington's position as the leading spokesman for American blacks to the larger white community and particularly to the white power structure of American politics, and it was lavishly praised by white leaders. Washington’s prolific writing also helped to spread his influence; moreover, much of the royalties from his books went into the coffers of Tuskegee. He wrote scores of articles and ten books, often with the help of ghost-writers, due to his busy schedule. Among them were The Future of the American Negro (1899), a collection of his articles and speeches; The Story of My Life and Work (1900), the first of three autobiographies; Up from Slavery (1901), his most critically acclaimed autobiography, translated into some eighteen