Booker T Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County , Virginia . Washington gained an early admiration for the values of family and education. Booker had been blessed with an intact family, with one exception of having a white father who never contributed to his life and whose identity Washington never acknowledged. Washington father was a master that’s why his identity was never revealed. From the lifelong inspiration of his mother, Booker learned lasting lessons of courage, perseverance, resourcefulness, and positive concepts, which influenced many of his later philosophies (www.gocities.com).

As a child Washington attend school whenever he had time to go. Washington attended Hampton Institute and did well there and later was offer a job there to teach. After teaching at Hampton Institute he was given a chance to start Tuskegee in Alabama . When Washington arrived at the school there were no buildings and no suitable for building (The Distinctive Black college p.24). The African American churches lent Tuskegee a old building and had school there. Tuskegee was not like any other school. The Institute taught young African American work habits such as: industry work, how to be a better citizens, and better human beings in society (African American Experience p223-225).

Booker T. Washington in his address delivered at the opening of The Cotton States' Exposition in Atlanta , Georgia meant to attain at least three goals. The first was of course the most clear-cut one, winning white advocates that would sponsor his cause. The second was that behind the purpose of the trickery itself, advancing his fellow brothers (Booker T. Washington p. 78). Trying to bypass whites' mindset and actually making whites help the black cause. And the third and last but not least important was that of delivering a moral speech on dignity and pride for both blacks and whites. All these three goals show Booker T. Washington's aims, by means of trickery (Booker T. Washington p. 78).

Washington was preparing African American to be ready for the work force. Many students are ready to go out and work when they leave the Institute, industrial factories and excited about that.

Tuskegee was called “Tuskegee Machine” for many reason, one is that it was not like any other Institute, the Institute taught their students life skills,