Premium Essay

Booker T Washington Research Paper

Submitted By
Words 1862
Pages 8
A Lifetime in Black America

1900 Booker T. Washington
During Spring Break of 2017, my History class inspired a road trip with my twelve-year-old daughter. We toured great sites such as Rosa Parks Museum, Dr. Kings Floating Grave and both Spelman and Morehouse College. Along the way, we talked about how each visit resonated a profound sense of vision within us. Consequently, I chose six core black Americans figures to express how each individual story helped to shape the United States of America.
Beginning in the early 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington (a former slave and prominent black leader) to dinner. Washington, who founded the Tuskegee Institute, was one of the most influential intellectuals of the era. Roosevelt, known for his impulsiveness, respected Washington, who also advised President William Howard Taft. Though Booker was not the first African American to advise a …show more content…
The envy grew so deep, it resulted in “deputized whites kill[ing] more than 300 African Americans. They looted and burned to the ground 40 square blocks of 1265 African American homes, including hospitals schools and churches and destroyed 150 business.…9000 African Americans were left homeless .” W.E.B. remained in the South for forty years after the Tulsa Oklahoma riot. Subsequently, the Great Depression, which further exasperated racial tensions, caused DuBois to rethink his differences with Booker. He now believed in black segregation and economic power over political gain. While teaching at Atlanta University, W.E.B. resigned from the NAACP over a dispute of the organizations refusal to change its focus in alignment with his. “DuBois [eventually] settled in Ghana and began work on the Encyclopedia Africana…Shortly thereafter, he joined the American Communist Party and became a citizen of Ghana, where he died at the age of

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Booker T Washington Research Paper

...Booker T. Washington was an educator as well as a civil rights leader. He was best known for opening the Tuskegee Institute. Therefore, Booker T. Washington was a powerful man because he was the first president of Tuskegee University, he helped blacks gain more freedom, and he changed history. Booker T. Washington was born as a slave on April 5th, 1856. Jane, Washington’s mother, worked as a cook for a plantation owner named James Burroughs. Washington’s first glimpse at education was the school house near the plantation. Looking inside, he saw children reading books and sitting at desks.He wanted to do what those children were doing, but he was a slave, and it was illegal to teach slaves how to read and write. After the Civil War, Booker and his mother moved to Malden, West Virginia, where Jane married a freedman. The family was very poor. His mother noticed his interest in learning, so she got him a book which taught him the alphabet and how to read and write simple words....

Words: 433 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Booker T Washington Vs Dubois Research Paper

...Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B du Bois, whose philosophy was more effective?Booker T. Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in West Virginia. He was born into slavery. Eventually, at the age of 9 he was free, thanks to the emancipation proclamation.Later on in his life, he went to Harvard University where he earned his degree, studied at Wayland Seminary, and then became the principal at Tuskegee Institute. Booker T. Washington is very passionate about achieving equality for African Americans. He wanted Blacks to prove they were just as equal as Whites.Also, he wanted us to agree to these segregation terms so that we could have things such as education and jobs.Many people believe that Du Bois's philosophy was more effective for achieving equality for African-Americans but he doesn't even understand life in Georgia, so how could his methods work. Booker T. Washington's philosophy was more effective...

Words: 523 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Booker T Washington Vs Dubois Research Paper

...The twentieth-century debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois is one of the most well-known. Washington and DuBois wanted to improve the lives of African Americans and challenge the systems of racial prejudice and oppression. However, they had different opinions and approaches on how to promote a better life. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois both had significant roles in the movement. Booker T. Washington believed that the best path for African Americans was to attend school. Washington heard about the Hampton and when he finally arrived, he felt for the first time of what it was like to be a man instead of property. Students could attend school and also work. “Has not the negro boy or girl as good a right to study French grammar and instrumental music as the white youth?” He answered yes; however, he believes that the current condition, at that time, needed...

Words: 431 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Up from Slavery

...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON’S UP FROM SLAVERY By VIRGINIA L. SHEPHARD, Ph.D., Florida State University S E R I E S E D I T O R S : W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery 2 INTRODUCTION Booker T. Washington’s commanding presence and oratory deeply moved his contemporaries. His writings continue to influence readers today. Although Washington claimed his autobiography was “a simple, straightforward story, with no attempt at embellishment,” readers for nearly a century have found it richly rewarding. Today, Up From Slavery appeals to a wide audience from early adolescence through adulthood. More important, however, is the inspiration his story of hard work and positive goals gives to all readers. His life is an example providing hope to all. The complexity and contradictions of his life make his autobiography intellectually intriguing for advanced readers. To some he was known as the Sage of Tuskegee or the Black Moses. One of his prominent biographers, Louis R. Harlan, called him the “Wizard of the Tuskegee Machine.” Others acknowledged him to be a complicated person and public figure. Students of American social and political history have come to see that Washington lived a double life. Publicly he appeased the white establishment...

Words: 13713 - Pages: 55

Premium Essay

Compare and Contrast the Ideas and Positions of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. Dubois. Critically Evaluate the Strength and Weaknesses of Each

...22/25 “Compare and contrast the ideas and positions of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. DuBois. Critically evaluate the strength and weaknesses of each.” Black History 140B Professor Katungi 3-12-03 Booker Taliaferro Washington was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin Country, Virginia in 1856. One of our nations most powerful black educators; he illustrated his belief in the dignity of work. He was very skilled in politics and influential for both black and white communities. “There was no period of my life that was devoted to play.” He expressed his concept of hard work was the cornerstone of his social philosophy. Booker T. became a principle and guiding force behind Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institution in Hampton, Alabama during 1881. He felt that industrial education was a way out from the horrible sharecropping and debt. His plan also wanted to achieve self-employment, land ownership and small businesses. “Yet one has the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”, being a personal quote from Booker T. at the Atlanta Compromise address in 1895. His major role was to influence the area of race relations and black leadership. He attacked racism and secretly founder of many anti-segregationist activities. Booker T. wanted to help black Americans rise up from the economic slavery, that had held them down long after they were legally free citizens. As being a dominant figure in black public affairs from 1895 until his...

Words: 1202 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

What Does Josephine Baker Symbolize

...Josephine Baker was an African American dancer, actress, pop music and jazz singer who was known for by multiple nicknames such as the “Bronze Venus”, “Black Pearl”, “Jazz Cleopatra”, and the “Creole Goddess”. Baker was a thrilling entertainer. More than that, she was the 20th Century’s first international black female sex symbol. The resume of Ms. Baker does not end after being known as an enticing erotic performer, she was also known for becoming an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. After reading this research paper, we will hold a better understanding of how Ms. Josephine Baker impacted American society against racism while being a sex symbol. Freda Josephine McDonald was born on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing...

Words: 253 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Reserach

...George Washington Carver For centuries scientists have expanded the many discoveries within the chemistry community that have provided the world with educational and personal impact. George Washington Carver was a man of honor and help that developed beneficial services to farmers and slaves during his time. He dedicated his life to research projects that over time changed Southern farmers declining economic crisis. “The products he derived from the peanut and the soybean revolutionized the economy of the South by liberating it from an excessive dependence on cotton” (“George Washington carver”, 1993). From being a teacher to well known advocate, Carver was influential man that committed his life to helping others no matter the circumstances. This led him to the developments of methods for conserving nutrients in soil and discoveries of new uses for crops like the peanut helped transform the agricultural economy of the South. Although born into slavery, George Washington Carver became one of the nation’s greatest educators and agricultural researchers/chemist. With a childhood illness that could have taken his life, Carver worked hard as a child with household chores and gardening. His keen interest in learning how to read, write, and spell took Carver to high places that all African American children dreamed of. He worked hard to get into college where many schools declined him because of his skin color. Regardless of such disappointing reasons, his determination and perseverance...

Words: 1361 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Test

...shouldn't have been surprising. Many multiracial historical figures in the U.S. have been reduced (or have reduced themselves) to a single aspect of their racial identities: Booker T. Washington, Tina Turner, and Greg Louganis are three examples. This phenomenon isn't entirely pernicious; it is at least partly rooted in our concern that growing up with a fractured identity is hard on kids. The psychologist J.D. Teicher summarized this view in a 1968 paper: "Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier." But new research says this old, problematized view of multiracial identity is outdated. In fact, a new paper in the Journal of Social Issues shows that multiracial adolescents who identify proudly as multiracial fare as well as — and, in many cases, better than — kids who identify with a single group, even if that group is considered high-status (like, say, Asians or whites). This finding was surprising because psychologists have argued for years that mixed-race kids will be better adjusted if they pick a single race as their own. The population of multiracial kids in the U.S. has soared from approximately 500,000 in 1970 to more than 6.8 million in 2000, according to Census data quoted in this pdf. In the early years, research on these kids highlighted their difficulties: the disapproval they faced from neighbors and members of their extended families; the sense that they weren't "full" members...

Words: 675 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Birth of a Nation

...The African Americans: The Birth of Equality after 1865 Leonard Stinson HIS204: American History Since 1865 Instructor John Durr December 5th, 2011 The African Americans: The Birth of Equality after 1865 This was a time when America was trying to find herself. These were the years known as the Reconstruction Period from 1865-1877. During this time period, the African-American people became free from slavery but one can only imagine what free really is. While the nation search for ways to establish true meaning of equality, African-American people continued to struggle to find out just what equality means and to have the same rights and freedom as the white people in the nation. Whether as slaves or free people, the political and social status of African Americans has always been to obtain the ability to participate in the nation’s economy. While many historians believe that slavery and politics can be attributed to the Civil War, more than 600,000 Americans died and with the help of the Emancipation Proclamation to start the motion to free the slaves, America became even more a divided country in 1865 than the previous earlier years (Bowles, 2011). Although freedom in the post-Civil War years did not guarantee equality, African Americans continued to struggle from racism, segregation and discrimination for many years, but the birth of equality is beginning to grow and show that all men and women are created equal. The effort to integrate...

Words: 3595 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Philosophy

...Literature Fall 2014 INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Charles Tita OFFICE: West Building, Office of Distance Education OFFICE HOURS: Monday 4-6 and Tuesday/Thursday 10:30-12 OFFICE PHONE: 521 6352 FAX: 910 521 6762 EMAIL ADDRESS: charles.tita@uncp.edu LECTURE TIME: Tuesday/Thursday 2-3:15pm LOCATION: DIAL 147 REQUIRED TEXT Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004. OPTIONAL REFERENCES Locke, Alain, ed. The New Negro. New York: Atheneum, 1968. hooks, bell. Teaching to Trangress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. Harrold, Stanley. American Abolitionists. New York: Pearson Education, 2001. Youngs, J. William T. American Realities: Historical Episodes-From First Settlements to the Civil War. New York: Longman, 2000. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963. COURSE DESCRIPTION: A survey of African American literature, introducing students to genres, trends, and major periods of African American literature, ranging from the 17th-, 18th- and 19th- century autobiographies and narratives to 20tth –century works. Authors include: Jupiter Hammon, Briton Hammon, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Haki Madhubuti, Ton Cade Bambara, and August Wilson. COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of this course...

Words: 3509 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

W. E. B Dubois Research Paper

...The piece was called The Philadelphia Negro. From this project he became known as the father of social science. He was offered many positions at different Universities. Dubois accepted a position at Atlanta University in Georgia. For thirteen years he taught History and Economics. After teaching for thirteen years there he left and wrote The Souls of Black Folks. This was a movement to attempt to win social justice for African Americans. Throughout the book it discussed the frustrations that blacks had to encounter due to racism. Dubois then met Booker T. Washington, who had brought about the Atlanta Compromise. Dubois publicly opposed the compromise. He felt that it violated the 14th amendment of the constitution. From all of the animosity between the two, DuBois rallied together twenty-nine African American leaders in 1906 and started the Niagara Movement. Which later became known as the NAACP. The NAACP is said to be the Civil Rights movement most influential...

Words: 943 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

X Games

...ESPN X Games: Commercialized Extreme Sports for the Masses SMGT 798 Allison Renard A Paper Presented to the faculty of Lasell College in Partial Fulfillment of the requirement of the Degree Master of Science in Management. ABSTRACT For years, extreme sports had little to nothing in common with each other except for high risk, and an appeal to women and men from the ages of 12 to 34. Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN), realizing this age group was a prime viewing audience, brought together several extreme sports and created yet another commercialized sporting spectacle. Since 1995, this television network has produced the Summer X Games. After these summer productions proved to be successful television and live spectator events, ESPN expanded into the winter extreme sports. The Winter X Games have been produced since 1997. This paper, which commences with the rise of extreme sports, is an historical and sociological analysis of the creation and growth of the ESPN X Games. While these commercialized adventure and extreme sporting events have had some obvious growing pains, both the Summer and Winter X Games have grown into events, which annually attract thousands of spectators and viewers while offering fame and a few dollars to their participants. INTRODUCTION One need only take a quick glance at the daily news to discover that society in general is still in a state of constant change (Leonard, 1993). In the United States, this is especially true...

Words: 7500 - Pages: 30

Premium Essay

Hidden Jewel

...Mr. Love William Harris Mr. Love Comp 2 Final Essay “Hidden Jewel” In life the cliché, “what you are looking for is right under your nose” is often marginalized to an old saying. I spent many tireless days looking for an appropriate artist with enough depth and character to fulfill the needs of research paper. Unknowingly to me at the time was that the suitable artist for my documentary is Ms. Claudia Davis, a graphic design major at Lindenwood University and an acquaintance. Consequently, I sat down with Ms. Davis in an attempt to shed light on a mind that often appears timid and nonchalant, at least on the surface. In fact, when ask for this interview, Ms. Davis initially declined saying, “I have nothing to offer for such a paper.” Ms. Davis is twenty-two year old woman from Hannibal, Missouri. She was conceived by Ms. Jessica Davis and Mr. Albert Fields. Davis has one sister, Ms. Rebecca McDonald and no other siblings. I asked Ms. Davis how was it growing up in Hannibal and with her held tilted to the side and eyes slanted to the left she replied, “boring and sheltered.” She added that everyone knew each other, and that Hannibal was more or less a tourist attraction for Mark Twain, a writer. She joked that she probably knew everything about him. “There is nothing to do in Hannibal,” Davis said, “the hang-out spot was Wal-Mart.” Like many youth her age, Davis was very active in social, sports and academic groups. She was a girls-scout, cheerleader...

Words: 1489 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

African American Victimisation by the Criminal Justice System

...importance to us with regard to this context is racial disproportionality within the criminal Justice system. By definition, racism is the perception that inherent differences between various racial groups consequently lead to the superiority of certain races and discrimination of other groups. This is the perception that great men such as Booker. T. Washington, as well as Martin Luther King, fought against during the 1960’s in a bid to end racism. For years these men under the African- American Civil Rights movement advocated for equality for all leading to the ‘end’ of racist perceptions. Today, the belief that their efforts halted racism stands to be questioned, on further examination of this subject it is eminent that racism is still existent in the twenty- first century. Racism has simply found ways of adapting to our daily activities thus dodging the common eye. To achieve this, racism has gradually encroached into fields such as education where coloured students experience disproportionality in disciplinary measures and in the criminal justice system where African Americans are inevitably the victims of the criminal justice system. This paper thus seeks to succinctly discuss the...

Words: 1914 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Women of the Civil Rights Movement: the Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement

...Women of the Civil Rights Movement: The role of women in the Civil Rights Movement In The American Journal of Legal History, Bernie D. Jones reviews the work of Legacies of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Grofman (2000), and describes the ends to the means. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act indisputably were effectual for altering the framework of the questionable American life, for the most part in the southern states. As a consequence, both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were accountable for the stoppage of vast opposition to the civil rights movement and the fitting fusion into the American Society by African Americans. By way of the Acts, public facilities that avidly participated in segregation became outlawed. Throughout the nation, as a result of the enforcement of the Acts, the former, not so easily attainable education opportunities and employment prospects that consistently had been refused, now, awarded African Americans impressively large supporting political control. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 pioneered immeasurably. Women were given distinctive safeguarding subject to employment discrimination law. Emphatically, invigorating the women’s movement, consequently, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 served movements of other ethnic civil rights. (p. xvi) VOICE OF OMISSION No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women. We are rarely...

Words: 2507 - Pages: 11