Biography of Booker Taliaferro Washington - Essay Example

Biographical Essay: Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915), who was born a slave in Virginia, may not be regaled in American history as one of the key voices during the African-American struggles, but this self-made man’s personal biographies, body of works, including his remarkable contributions to inspire and educate fellow blacks during those times may be regarded as one of the most mature, unpretentious and sincere act to ever come from his race. His landmark Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (1091) painted the hard, tumultuous early years of his life as a slave on a plantation until his emancipation at age nine, that he turned such disadvantages to advantages to acquire education even educating slaves at that time was illegal. Since he grew up without a father, it was only Booker’s illiterate mother, Jane, a cook, who looked after him and encourage him to read because like other blacks who wanted freedom from slavery, she wanted to kindle his son’s passion to grow up an educated man. At that time, when slaves are forbidden in schools, he only took advantage of the chances to read books when he is asked to carry the books at school of their landowner’s daughters.1 The landmark reading of the Emancipation in 1865 that eventually freed the slaves to earn a new civil status, including the family of young Booker, eventually lead them move in West Virginia. While studying during the day, Washington worked from being a salt miner then coal miner after school. In a biography written by C.D. Merriman (2005), he credited Viola Ruffner, the wife of the owner of the mines, Gen. Lewis Ruffner, as an important person who influenced Washington’s early years. He was hired as houseboy in the family Ruffner’s house and the young Washington learned from Mrs. Ruffner her conservative, work ethics, thriftiness and orderliness at home.2 At the age of 16, Washington and his brother, John, made the journey to Hampton, Virginia to enroll at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, a school for blacks established by a former Union General that he heard from fellow miners, in hopes of furthering his studies. His and John Washington’s tuition were paid by F. Griffiths Morgan as Booker continued working as coal miner in order to ensure that his brother complete his education as well. At the school, he learned the rudiments and skills in agriculture and brick masonry, and soon earned the support and admiration of the school principal. A year after Washington graduated in 1878, he worked as an instructor the following year, which he juggled with other works such as supervising a group of Native Americans who were also attending in the same school. Seeing in Washington the makings of a good principal, this school’s principal, Gen. Samuel Chapman Armstrong instead recommended him for the post contrary to requests from the school’s board to elect a white principal for a planned black normal school in Tuskegee. This seems the moment that Washington was waiting for, and soon it propelled his popularity and the confidence of the whites in the area toward him, which in turn help the school obtained sponsorships and donations from prominent benefactors like George Eastman (founder of camera maker Kodak), Andrew Carnegie, and the industrialist John D. Rockefeller.3 With adept funding support from these illustrious people, coupled with Washington’s tireless and self-less determination to teach young blacks, their formerly “wagon schools on wheels” eventually found a solid footing when he acquired a land to build the Institute. His students also helped in erecting the buildings. Even the food they would eat came from the produce these students planted out of the farming approaches that their young mentor taught them. In the normal school, courses on Psychology, agriculture, carpentry, cooking and other practical arts lessons were instituted. Washington’s philosophy in teaching his fellow blacks who were also like him slaves, practical arts other than book education was that of infusing book education with the physical labor and personal hygiene. As he earned wider respect from white farmers because he helped enriched the community with his contributions, he once told these white farmers who inquired about his method4 – “My theory of education for the Negro would not, for example confine him for all time to farm life .. but that if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the foundations upon which his children and grandchildren could grow to higher and more important things in life” (Washington, p. 143) However, it was during his tours as a lecturer that he earned wider notice from both blacks and whites. Speaking before a predominantly white audience at that Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition on September 18, 1895, his speech (that is soon to earn the title “Atlanta Compromise) contemplated his appeal for wider tolerance, understanding, acceptance as well as compromise for the welfare of his fellow blacks. He pacified concerns by listeners of a racial imbroglio by informing his audience what the blacks would contend to do in the land of opportunity, that is through being independent producers of goods and services by their hands. He continued5 thus saying – “The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing … It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. (Harlan, p. 583-587). As his influence soon grew further in the whites and blacks, he consolidated this feat when he published his influential autobiography, Up from Slavery and by founding the National Negro Business League in 1900, which helped emboldened and empowered young blacks to continue. He was also the first black who was invited for a dinner at the White House in 1901, then chief black advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Unlike his other contemporaries like William Dubois, scholar and the first black man who earned a PhD from Harvard University and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, Washington was more conservative in his stance about race relations, seeking a more realistic understanding and consideration from the whites because he believed that for blacks to progress on state affairs, they must first establish a firm and solid economic footing, thus, creators of a whole new set of opportunities, not a separate group. Although Washington was himself a member of the NAACP, he refused to publicly acknowledge this for fear of losing his white supporters.6 He was also a member of the Afro-American League, another civil rights group. In writing for Issues and Views (1992) Elizabeth Wright lauded Washington’s clear thinking and grasp of the situation and complicated nature of the race relationship of the blacks with whites, noting in her analysis that Washington recognized that the destructive tendencies of publicly rebuking the whites and expressing animosity which can only aggravate the situation and their race’s welfare in the long term.7 She defended Washington’s stance and believed Dubois’ elitist NAACP group was conceived only to debunk and criticize Washington’s philosophies and refusal to give in to more violent and aggressive civic activities so that the black would be noticed by whites and rendered with all for the sake of “social justice”. Dubois urged blacks to participate in civic activities and the education of the black youths. Obviously criticizing Washington’s Atlanta Compromise speech, Dubois’s philosophy of a well-educated man means “not contended to become hewers of wood and drawers of water.” Unlike Washington’s support for legal segregation and loss of voting rights, his critics also believed that if blacks were to become future leaders, they should pursue college- or university-education and not practical or vocational, evening classes.8 In sum, Booker Washington’s contributions in his society during those time may be said to be confined in a more peaceful, non-aggressive movement championing the education of young blacks through self-help, industrial skills. He sees this kind of education as key to establishing a solid economic foundation and making blacks one of the prime creators of opportunities for the fellow black race that will eventually earn them the respect of other races for contributing to the community and the nation. Such stance may also be the most unconventional but visionary and mature among the more educated blacks during his times. His philosophies should not be contrasted with his peers who champions gaining book education or university degree to become future leaders of the society, but should be viewed as complementary to these types of education because for him, his approach is key also to finally gaining civic equalities the blacks are fighting to achieve. To conclude, interpretations of Washington’s contributions to the black struggle continue to evolve, some neglecting it and others acclaiming him for his ceaseless and tireless efforts to ensure that his desire to help the young blacks attain the right kind of education is achieved. From being a poor slave boy to being the first black to set a foot in the White House, this magnificent feat is sure enough reason to reclaim his lost legacy among his race by inspiring them and being a spectre of the great black race. Endnotes Read More