Liberty Lives Here #20: Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington was born into a world where someone else decided almost everything about his life.

Born enslaved in Virginia in 1856, Booker spent his earliest years living with his mother, brother, and sister in a small cabin that also served as the plantation kitchen. His mother, Jane, was the plantation cook. Booker did not know his father, and because he was enslaved, he had no legal freedom to choose where he lived, where he worked, or whether he received an education.

Even as a little boy, Booker wanted desperately to learn.

He sometimes carried books for one of the plantation owner’s daughters as she went to school. Booker could not attend with her, but the sight of children sitting in a classroom and learning fascinated him.

He later remembered longing to be one of those students. When the Civil War ended in 1865, Booker and his family became free. His mother moved the family to West Virginia, where Booker’s stepfather worked. But freedom did not suddenly make life easy. Booker was still a child, and his family was very poor. He went to work packing salt and later worked in a coal mine.

Then a school opened for black children. Booker wanted to go more than almost anything, but his family needed the money he earned. Eventually, he worked out a way to do both. He got up early to work before school, attended classes, and then returned to work afterward. For the first time in his life, Booker T. Washington was a student…and he loved learning.

When Booker was about sixteen, he heard about Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school where black students could continue their education. He decided he was going to go. There was one enormous problem. Hampton was about 500 miles away.

Booker had very little money, but he set out anyway. He traveled as far as his money would take him and walked portions of the remaining journey. By the time he arrived at Hampton, he was exhausted, dirty, and nearly penniless. The school gave him an unusual entrance examination. He was told to clean a classroom. Booker swept and dusted it carefully, determined to leave no dirt behind. He passed the test.

While attending Hampton, Booker worked as a janitor to help pay for his education. In 1875, he graduated with honors.

Several years later, Booker received an opportunity that would shape the rest of his life. Leaders in Tuskegee, Alabama, were establishing a school for black students and needed someone to lead it. Hampton’s founder recommended Booker for the job.

Booker was only twenty-five years old. When the Tuskegee school opened on July 4, 1881, it had about thirty students and met in a church. The state had provided money for teachers’ salaries, but the new school did not have its own land or school buildings.

So Booker and his students began building. Students cleared land, constructed buildings, and even made bricks. Booker believed education should prepare students to support themselves, strengthen their families, and improve their communities. Along with traditional academic subjects, Tuskegee students learned practical skills in agriculture, construction, trades, and other areas.

The little school grew and grew.

By the time Booker T. Washington died in 1915, Tuskegee had more than 100 buildings, approximately 200 faculty members, and instruction in dozens of trades and professions. One of the teachers Booker eventually brought to Tuskegee was another man you may recognize: George Washington Carver.

Carver became the head of Tuskegee’s agricultural department and devoted his work to helping farmers improve their soil, crops, and lives. Booker T. Washington lived during a complicated period of American history.

Slavery had ended, but racism and discrimination had not. Black Americans faced segregation, violence, poverty, unequal schools, restrictions on voting, and laws designed to limit their opportunities.

Washington believed education and economic independence were important ways black Americans could strengthen their position in society. He encouraged people to learn valuable skills, own businesses and property, develop strong communities, and become economically independent.

His ideas made him one of the most influential black leaders in America. In 1895, he delivered a famous speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. In 1900, he helped establish the National Negro Business League to encourage black business ownership. The following year, his autobiography, Up from Slavery, became widely read.

But not everyone agreed with Washington’s approach.

W. E. B. Du Bois and other black leaders believed Washington placed too much emphasis on economic progress while not demanding strongly enough that black Americans immediately receive their full civil and political rights. Du Bois argued that higher education, voting rights, and direct opposition to racial discrimination were also essential.

It was an important disagreement. Both men lived in a nation that had promised freedom while failing to protect that freedom equally for all its citizens. They differed over how best to change it.

That disagreement gives us something worth thinking about today.

What does a person need in order to truly live in freedom?