Booker T. Washington was an outstanding African-American educator, leader and spokesman for the black community.  He was an advocate stressing the importance for African-Americans to be educated and become economically self-reliant in order for the black community to advance.  Often considered the “Moses of his race,” Washington went on to be an influential politician delivering his controversial Atlanta Compromise and became a founder of the Tuskegee Institute and the National Negro Business League.

1856 born April 5 in Franklin County, Virginia
1862 September 22 Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation
1865 Civil War ended and Washington moved to Malden, West Virginia with his family to pack salt
1872-1875 (at age sixteen) he journeyed to and attended the newly founded Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University)
Late 1870s taught for three years in Tinkersville, West Virginia
1878 left to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington DC (quit after six months)
1879 returned to Hampton Institute to teach
1881 offered position of principal of the new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
1881-1915 headed the Tuskegee Normal School (in 1937 became the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute)
1895 September 18 delivered his controversial speech "The Atlanta Compromise," urging blacks to accept their inferior status and to advance themselves through education and economic improvement
1899 published The Future of the American Negro
1900 founded the National Negro Business League
1901 published his autobiography and bestseller Up From Slavery
1907 published Life of Frederick Douglass
1909 The Story of the Negro published
1911 My Larger Education published
1915 November 14 he died of a heart attack

Interesting facts:
His exact birth date was unknown so he chose April 5th as his birthday.
He worked as a salt packer, janitor, house servant and coal miner.
Washington was given an honorary degree from Harvard.
He became the first African-American to ever dine at the White House with the President.
He was an advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft.
His power and influence earned him the nickname “Wizard of Tuskegee.”
He never knew his white father.

Reputation and Literary Style:
Though often considered less dynamic than Frederick Douglass and lacking the intellectual temperament of W.E.B. Du Bois, Washington still had a profound impact on the black and literary community.  He had great respect and appreciation for Mark Twain, and this influence was evident in Washington’s to-the-point writing style.  Washington used his literature to educate and influence rather than entertain.  He advocated private initiative and nonpolitical solutions to racial problems.  His strong feelings about capitalism shone through each of his literary pieces.  He taught that there was as much dignity in tilling fields as writing poetry.  He felt that the burden of improving economically and personally rested squarely on the shoulders of each African-American.  Most whites liked these non-threatening beliefs, while others despised them greatly.


Sources Consulted:
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2001 on CD ROM

Harlan, Louis R.  Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader.  New York: Oxford University
Press, 1972.

“Booker T. Washington: Apostle of Freedom”:
http://www.libertyhaven.com/theoreticalorphilosophicalissues/economics/freeenterpriseandentrepreneurship/bookert.html (February 14, 2001)

“Washington, Booker T.”  World Book Encyclopedia Online.  http://www.worldbook.com (February 14,
2001)

“Booker T. Washington”  http://www.ushistory.net/toc/washington.html (February 14, 2001)

Baym, Nina (General Editor).  The Norton Anthology of American Literature, fifth ed.  New York: W.W.
Norton and Company, 1998.

Links:
“Tribute to Mark Twain” By Booker T. Washington: http://marktwain.miningco.com/arts/marktwain/library/texts/bl_trib_washington.html

“Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)”:
http://longman.awl.com/history/primarysource_17_6.html

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries’ “Booker T. Washington: 1856-1915, Educator”:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/washington/about.html

Heath Booker T. Washington page
http://www.georgetown.edu/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/washingt.html

PBS Frontline Debate:  Washington vs. DuBois
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html