He was born in a slave hut but, after emancipation, moved with his family to Malden, West Virginia. Dire poverty ruled out regular schooling; at age nine he began working, first in a salt furnace and later in a coal mine. In 1881 Washington was selected to head a newly established normal school for African Americans at Tuskegee, an institution with two small converted buildings, no equipment, and very little money. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute became a monument to his life’s work.
Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community’s economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. With his own contributions to the black community, Washington was a supporter of racial uplift, but, secretly, he also supported court challenges to segregation and to restrictions on voter registration.
Washington had the ear of the powerful in the America of his day, including presidents. His mastery of the American political system in the later 19th century allowed him to manipulate the media, raise money, develop strategy, network, distribute funds, and reward a cadre of supporters.
Because of his influential leadership, the timespan of his activity, from 1880 to 1915, has been called the Age of Booker T. Washington. Nevertheless, opposition to Washington grew, as it became clear that his Atlanta compromise did not produce the promised improvement for most black Americans in the South. William Monroe Trotter and W. E. B. Du Bois, whom Bookerites perceived in an antebellum way as “northern blacks”, found Washington too accommodationist and his industrial (“agricultural and mechanical”) education inadequate. Washington fought vigorously against them and succeeded in his opposition to the Niagara Movement that they tried to found but could not prevent their formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), whose views became mainstream.
Washington presided over Tuskegee Institute until his death on November 14, 1915. He wrote twelve books, the most famous of which, Up From Slavery (1906), recounted his early life in Malden. Washington remains one of the most respected yet controversial subjects of African-American history. Tuskegee Institute provided educational opportunities for many blacks which would not have existed without his leadership. However, while many African Americans demanded change, Washington advocated acceptance of the status quo.
According to archive.wvculture.org; britannica.com. Source of photos: internet
