BOOKER T. WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT

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1 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT THE MISSION preserves and protects the birth site and childhood home of Booker T. Washington while interpreting his life experiences and significance in American History as the most powerful African-American between 1895 and The park provides a resource for public education and a focal point for continuing discussions about the legacies of Booker T. Washington and the evolving context of race in American society. 1

Booker T. Washington National Monument On April 5, 1856, a child who later called himself Booker T. Washington, was born in slavery on this 207-acre tobacco farm.

2 Booker T. Washington National Monument On April 5, 1856, a child who later called himself Booker T. Washington, was born in slavery on this 207-acre tobacco farm. The realities of life as a slave in Piedmont, Virginia, the quest by African Americans for education and equality and the post-war struggle over political participation all shaped the options and choices of Booker T. Washington. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881 and later became an important and controversial leader at a time when increasing racism in the United States made it necessary for African Americans to adjust themselves to a new era of legalized oppression. preserves and protects the birthplace and childhood home of Booker T. Washington while interpreting his life experiences and significance in American history as the most powerful African American between 1895 and The park provides a resource for public education and a focal point for continuing discussions about the legacies of Booker T. Washington and the evolving context of race in American society. Visitors are invited to step back in time and experience firsthand the life and landscape of the people who lived when slavery was part of the American experience. The programs described on the following pages build the foundation of Booker T. Washington National Monument s Education Program. The program consists of five onsite educational experiences and one traveling trunk. Each program has been created by incorporating the interpretive goals of the park with the Commonwealth of Virginia s Standards of Learning (SOLs). Please visit our web site at for more information about the program. EDUCATION PROGRAMS. Curriculum-based education programs are offered free of charge Monday through Friday, as weather and staff availability permit. These programs generally last 45 minutes to 1 hour. Reservations for these programs must be made prior to your visit. To reserve a date for a program, call the park at (540) We suggest that you book your selected tour date as far in advance as possible. Dates in April, May and October fill up quickly. We do not accept rain dates; however, every effort is made to reschedule a tour to everyone s convenience. PLANTATION TRAIL. The Plantation Trail is a ¼ mile loop through the historic area. It passes by reconstructions of the nineteenth century farm buildings similar to those that stood on the Burroughs Plantation when Booker T. Washington lived here as a boy. You are invited to explore the open buildings and read from the park brochure about the kinds of activities that took place in each. JACK-O-LANTERN BRANCH HERITAGE TRAIL. In addition to the Plantation Trail, the monument provides an opportunity for a 1½ mile meandering walk through fields and forests on the Jack-O-Lantern Branch Trail. Trail guides are available at the visitor center. PICNIC AREA. A picnic area in a wooded setting is available for your use. There you will find picnic tables, grills, and a water fountain. Restrooms are located in the visitor center. 2

3 The Booker T. Washington Story Booker Taliaferro Washington was born in the spring of 1856 on the tobacco farm belonging to James and Elizabeth Burroughs. His mother, a slave called Jane, was the cook for the farm. His father is thought to have been a local white man. Booker, his mother, brother and sister lived in a small log cabin. The cabin was not only the family's home, but was also used as the kitchen for the plantation. It had no windows. Openings in the side let in the light...but also the cold winter air. There was no wooden floor. Booker later said that he and his family slept on "a bundle of filthy rags laid upon the dirt floor." Life on the plantation was harsh. Everyone on the plantation worked, even the youngest children. Booker later said that he never remembered playing, not even as a small child. The family ate no regular meals together. There was very little to eat. Booker remembers his mother cooking a stolen chicken late at night and feeding it to her children. It was against the law to teach slaves to read. Booker sometimes walked to school with one of the Burroughs daughters so he could carry her books and bring the horse back to work in the fields. He thought that to be allowed to get an education "would be about the same as getting into paradise." Booker's mother often prayed that one day she and her family would be free. The day of freedom finally came at the end of the Civil War when Booker was nine years old. A Union officer read the Emancipation Proclamation from the front porch of the Burroughs house, and all the people who had been held in slavery, including Jane and her children, were freed. Booker's mother decided to take her children to Malden, West Virginia, where her husband was working in the salt mines. There Booker went to work in the salt furnace. Later, he worked in the coal mines. He was still a young boy, about the same age as many of you. In Malden, Booker began his education. First, he used a spelling book to learn the alphabet. Later, he was able to go to school-- although he still had to work to help support his family. He got up early in the morning to work in the coal mines for five hours before going to school at 9:00 a.m. When school was finished for the day, he went back to the mine again. When the teacher asked Booker for his full name, he chose the last name "Washington." Later he learned that his mother, soon after he was born, had named him "Booker Taliaferro" (TAL-uh-FAIR-ro). That made his full name "Booker Taliaferro Washington." 3

4 When Washington was 14 or 15, he went to work as a houseboy for Mrs. Viola Ruffner. She encouraged him to continue his studies. She also taught him the importance of cleanliness, hard work, and honesty. He said these lessons were as valuable as any he learned in school. While working for Mrs. Ruffner, Washington heard about Hampton Institute, a school for African Americans. Even though it was in Hampton, Virginia, 500 miles away, he was determined to go there. He walked most of the 500 miles to school. When Washington got to Hampton, he went to the office of the head teacher. It had been a long time since he had had a bath, and his clothes were ragged. He could see that the teacher had doubts about admitting him to the school. Finally, she told him to sweep the classroom. Putting all the lessons he had learned from Mrs. Ruffner to use, he cleaned the classroom until was perfect. He was admitted as a student. Booker T. Washington received the education he wanted at Hampton Institute while working as a janitor. After graduating, he returned to Malden to teach others. He paid for his brother to attend Hampton, too. Later, Booker returned to Hampton Institute as a teacher. When a group from Tuskegee, Alabama, wrote to Hampton Institute asking for a teacher to start a school, the principal recommended Booker. When Washington arrived at Tuskegee, there were no buildings and no students. He decided that students at Tuskegee would learn vocational skills while studying practical subjects. Over the years, students built most of the buildings at the school. Students also grew most of the food served at the school. Today, the school is called Tuskegee University and remains a prestigious Historically Black University. Washington traveled throughout the country to raise money for the school. He gave many speeches. In 1895, he gave a speech called "The Atlanta Address." This speech made him famous because it encouraged economic progress while not challenging racial segregation, a very controversial subject. In his later years, Washington became even better known. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, was one of 13 books he published. He received an honorary degree from Harvard University. He was an adviser to three Presidents--William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. Dr. Booker T. Washington died in He is buried on the campus of Tuskegee University in Alabama. 4

5 Tuskegee Institute Text taken from the brochure Tuskegee Institute available from Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, P.O. Drawer 10, Tuskegee Institute, AL In his famous Atlanta Address of 1895, Booker T. Washington set forth the motivating spirit behind Tuskegee Institute. In a post-reconstruction era marked by growing segregation and disenfranchisement of blacks, this spirit was based on what realistically might be achieved in that time and place. "The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now," he observed, "is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house." Because of Washington's extraordinary ability to work within the system and to maximize the possible, Tuskegee flourished to an extent only dreamed about when he met his first students on July 4, The school's beginnings were indeed inauspicious. At the urging of Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a former slave owner, the State of Alabama had provided a dilapidated church and shanty. Although the 30 students in the first class may not have known what to expect from the new school, Principal Washington knew exactly what he intended to do. Guided by the model of Hampton Institute, Washington set three objectives for Tuskegee. Students in the first class already had some education and showed potential as teachers. Throughout the school's history, many graduates became educators. Washington urged these teachers "to return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of people." A rural extension program took progressive ideas and training to many who could not attend classes on the campus. Smaller schools and colleges founded and taught by Tuskegee alumni sprang up throughout the South, and teacher training remained a primary objective of their alma mater. A second and perhaps more famous objective was to develop craft and occupational skills to equip students for jobs in the trades and agriculture. The needs of the schools provided a ready laboratory for instruction. Buildings were needed, so the students made and laid bricks. Hungry students ate the products of the school's farm, acquiring in the process knowledge of progressive agricultural methods. Thus they learned by doing while earning compensation toward tuition. Even in traditional academic courses, practical problems were interwoven at every opportunity. "In industry the foundation must be laid," Washington explained. Industrial education was to be the basis on which "habits of thrift, a love of work, ownership of property, (and) bank accounts," would grow. As a third objective, Washington hoped to make Tuskegee what he called a "civilizing agent." Education was to be total; certainly it would occur in the classroom and workshop, but also it would take place in the dining hall and dormitories. Washington insisted on high moral character and absolute cleanliness for both students and faculty. Dormitory rooms and table manners were critically scrutinized. Washington himself kept close watch over the appearance of Tuskegee's buildings, grounds, students, and faculty. "I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it...or a button off one's clothes, or a 5

6 grease-spot on them or on a floor, that I do not want to call attention to it," confessed Washington. To enable the Institute to undertake such a program of total instruction, the school moved, in 1882, to 100 acres of abandoned farm land, purchased with a $200 personal loan from the treasurer of Hampton. Tuskegee prospered as it did in part because Washington won widespread support in both the North and the South. He traveled extensively and spoke convincingly, making the Institute known and respected among people of wealth and influence. The first building erected on campus, Porter Hall, was named for the Brooklyn donor of $500. Andrew Carnegie, Collis P. Huntington, and John D. Rockefeller were among the benefactors whose names appeared on major campus buildings. By the time of Washington's death in 1915, Tuskegee had become an internationally famous institution. The main campus has since grown to include 161 buildings on 268 acres and an academic community of nearly 5,000 students, faculty and staff. The success of Tuskegee has not always been greeted with acclaim. Many felt that vocational training for blacks would tend to keep them in a subordinate role. Instead, notably W.E.B. Du Bois advocated greater emphasis on traditional higher education. While each side in this debate recognized the need for both kinds of education, the concern was with the disproportionate emphasis on vocational training that Washington's approach and Tuskegee's popular success were fostering. Growing racial discrimination heightened the debate. Although Washington combated racial injustice behind the scenes, his critics knew little or nothing of his activity and criticized what they saw as inaction. In the decades after Washington's death, Tuskegee moved into a new era. The controversy over educational philosophy diminished as a more balanced approach arose. Washington's successor, Robert R. Moton, led Tuskegee into a college degree-granting program with the establishment of the College Department in The struggles and triumphs of those early years, the support and attention that was garnered for Tuskegee, its survival and growth, combine into a fascinating, spirited saga. History will always grant a special significance to the name Tuskegee Institute. 6

7 The Atlanta Exposition Address The following is a transcript of Dr. Washington s most famous speech. It was presented in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18, Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens: One-third of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or Industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or truck garden. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, "Water, water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, "Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the signal, "Water, water; send us water!" ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." The Captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: "Cast down your bucket where you are"--cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportions as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life 7

8 and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, "Cast down your bucket where you are." Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sickbed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interest of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed--"blessing him that gives and him that takes." There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable: - The laws of changeless justice bind Oppressor with oppressed; And close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast. Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute onethird to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic. 8

9 Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch. Starting thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam-engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug-stores and banks, has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our educational life, not only from the Southern states, but especially from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant stream of blessing and encouragement. 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. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. 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 exercises of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house. In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the exposition; and here bending, as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three decades ago, I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only let this be constantly in mind, that, while from representations in these buildings of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory, letters and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray God, will come, in a blotting out as sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, this, coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth. 9

Speech to the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition

Speech to the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition (The Atlanta Compromise Speech) Address by Booker T. Washington, Principal Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama,