Who Is Booker T. Washington?
In the years following the Civil War, Booker T. Washington devoted his life to helping blacks transition out of slavery and into freedom. While his ideas were never fully embraced in his time, today, more than a century later, they remain strikingly relevant. Derryck Green from Project 21 explains.
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Script:
There have been many influential black leaders since the Civil War. They include Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and, of course, Martin Luther King.
But none had more influence in their time than Booker T. Washington did in his.
Known by his admirers as the “Modern Moses,” his role in helping blacks establish themselves after their liberation from slavery is a testament to the man and to America.
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. He did not know the day or month of his birth, who his father was, or his last name. As a child, he was known only as Booker. He chose the name Washington.
He was nine years old when a Union soldier arrived on the plantation and announced that all slaves were free. The initial reaction to this announcement, Washington recalled, was elation and then…shock.
Yes, the Civil War was over; they were free. But free to do what?
The freed slaves, through no fault of their own, were simply unprepared for freedom. They needed to learn not only basic academic skills—reading, writing and arithmetic—but basic life skills like hygiene: how and why to bathe and brush their teeth.
The cause to which Washington dedicated his life was education. Practical education.
His journey began in 1872, seven years after the Civil War ended. He traveled 500 miles, most of it on foot, to a small Virginia school dedicated to the education of freed blacks, the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.
Forced to spend all his meager funds on the grueling journey, he arrived only with the clothes on his back. The headmistress viewed his suitability as a student with open skepticism, but he wouldn’t budge. She finally gave him a chance to prove his worth in the form of a broom and a cleaning assignment. He passed her test and earned admission. He graduated with top honors.
Several years later, he was invited to begin what would become his life’s work, heading the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. When he arrived, he assumed he’d walk onto a campus. But there was no campus—only a few shacks and a chicken coop. The school had almost no money. But it did have 30 eager students. And for Booker T. Washington, that was enough.
Under his leadership, they got to work. Every building, every desk, was built by the students themselves—brick by brick, piece by piece. This tied in perfectly with Washington’s philosophy of a practical education: students at Tuskegee, in addition to academic studies, had to master a trade.
He believed this led not only to racial uplift among blacks but to respect for blacks. His graduates would go out into the world with sought-after skills. They would be useful to their neighbors and become invaluable members of their communities.
“The individual who can do something that the world wants done,” Washington said, “will, in the end, make his way regardless of race.”
Washington distilled his philosophy into what became one of the most important speeches of the late 19th century, an address he delivered at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. His theme was that blacks needed time to develop educationally and economically. Whites, Washington suggested, should help them in every way possible. This would be in the best interests of both races.
He also emphasized that blacks needed to recognize that social equality would not come swiftly. It could not be forced through political action alone. The civil rights the Constitution promised would evolve naturally from black achievement.
As he put it: “No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.”
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Black ppl didn't bathe and brush their teeth? Are you for real bro?👀
The slaves were freed to become criminals under the clock.
Booker T Washington's philosophy was to take responsibility for yourself and not to blame others for your shortcomings.Not a popular concept for the race hustlers.
POV: you’re learning this in school🥴🥴
Prager U is mostly BS. Everyone knows that. "Certain" people turn here when they want to be lied to so they can have their biases validated.
Please speak in hindi.
❤😊😮. They need to talk about this too schools and Social Media. Fox News: Brian kilmeade made a book on President Teddy and Booker T . And great video guys. Good to still learn from stuff after graduation from school.
excellent!!! What a great, great man!!!1
Forget your bs company. Helping bring down America.
e
So Inspiring. Its sad how the NAACP and other Black Socialist/Communist Organizations are trying to cancel this man's teachings.
He is a hero to all African Americans and I’m happy he was invited to the White House
MLK Jr definitely have more influence
irononically his black socialist opponents coined and would call him an uncle tom, at that time it was a disparaging term to basically say "you could never truly earn your freedom you would always be a slave" it was a doomer mentalility of "you will never be white." but booker never wanted to be dependent on food stamps and government handouts of a master again, knowing what that life was like.
Just presented Booker T Washington in my poly sci class at university and I was put on the chopping block by my lesbian socialist professor who bashed Booker for being a pragmatist and how my presentation caterer to a “white audience”… Sad I went through that but I’m glad I did. Good job Prager
Firstly, In Booker T. Washington’s Autobiography, “Up From Slavery”, he says himself, he was born in 1858 or 1859. Not 1856. Secondly, 1:05 – 1:17 minutes into your video you make some pretty ridiculous statements; particularly about slaves not knowing how to bathe or brush their teeth. Did you know an enslaved African on what is now US soil invented the first vaccine in the early 1700’s? But you say slaves needed to learn how and why to bathe? Do you not know that free men called Romans used a stick with a sponge on it as a public tool to wipe themselves after defecating. Tell me you would indulge in such a practice today. Lastly, I will watch the rest of your video but the first 1:17 made me want to turn it off for its inaccuracies and it’s lack of appreciation in knowing that African slaves worked all day and all night having little time to even care for their little ones as noted by Booker T himself let alone having the leisure to indulge in the pleasures of hot, soapy water.
This is a terrible teaching on him
Booker T Washington is unfortunately misrepresented by African-Americans and by European Americans.
Booker T Washington privately opposed and rejected segregation. He privately-funded cases to fight against segregation. This is something that w.e.b. Du Bois did not know.
He did not properly explain the ideology a Booker T Washington
He was the exact opposite of Obama.
very good
Let racist people stay in their own prisons.
Others must educate themselves, travel, get exposures to other cultures, and education in basic skills, science, math, logic and history. A well rounded person will be able to grow and prosper regardless of rascism or gender discrimination.
Rascist people will always exist, but over time their population will die out and they will then become the minority. Hopefully they will not have to suffer from the wheel their fore fathers put in motion and sustained for generations.
Booker T. Washington is an American success story. He used challenging (and unfair/biased) obstacles to motivate himself to do more extraordinary things than 99.999999999% of other people. He took every obstacle and beat it to a pulp by working harder, longer, and with greater determination than a thousand stout men. Booker T. Washington needs to be front and center in American History, not just Black History. He is the spirit of America from its foundation to today.
Hitler admired him
3:44 I think the Jews might heavily disagree with that one.
Definitely one of my favorite people in history
Yeah so then when blacks built their towns those same whites came in and burnt them down
Isn’t he the one who did the whole Atlanta compromise
Thank you, sir. You made this straight to the point and so understandable.
Practical education? It works, LORD it works!
As a liberal. I don't usually like prager u. But I love this. What a great man
Interesting video like seriously, Booker T. Washington is an inspirational man. I as a Black Australian man of East African Somali descent love the Black American community. I myself have no enslaved and segregated ancestors because they were East African Somali people who were never captured or kidnapped or sold into slavery because they came from a strong empire. I am the proud son of two East African Somali immigrant parents both my father and my mother plus my paternal uncle which they all successfully immigrated to Australia in the mid 1990s escaping the Somali Civil War which devastated the country. My family and I still live there today. I love Australia because it is so peaceful and relaxing here plus I enjoy my life here in this incredible country. If I was a descendant of an amazingly tough enslaved and segregated ancestors who went through so much suffering I would always honour them plus remember them. I would never disgrace or forget what they had to experience the painful torment of racism. My heart goes out to all the oppressed Black people in the past that had go through the African Tribal Warfare, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Chattel Slavery, the Colonial Wars, the Domestic Slave Trade, the American Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan Racial Terror Lynchings, the Race Riots, Convict Leasing, Jim Crow Segregation, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Redlinings, the Inner City Gang Violence, the War On Drugs, Police Brutality, the Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System, and Private Prison Abuse. In the United States of America today there is still Inner City Gang Violence, Police Brutality, Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System, and Private Prison Abuse so depressing. America needs a huge criminal justice reform, economic reform, gun control reform, immigration reform, police reform, political reform, and prison reform. I send my love plus support all the way from Lakemba, New South Wales, Australia. To all my fellow human brothers and sisters around the world, always remember be genuine & take care of one another.
whites don't want you to learn this.
Dont forget to include Barrack Obama on that list of heroic blacks next to Dr. MLK