When I hear the name “Booker”, I automatically know that the next sound I will hear will be the middle initial “T”. 

Growing up in the South, that was a very common name, “Booker T.”

In this week’s blog, we will focus on Booker T. Washington.

Born in slavery, during his early childhood, he was simply called “Booker”. His mother’s name was Jane, he never knew who his biological father was, but it was assumed to be a white man on a neighboring farm. 

When he was nine, Booker and his family in Virginia gained freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation. This was a presidential order and executive order, from then President, Abraham Lincoln.  The proclamation freed the slaves. 

Books, Books and more Books

Booker T. had a love for books and appreciated and understood the importance of education. 

He believed so much in the importance of education that he worked in salt furnaces and coal mines in West Virginia for several years to earn money. He would later work as a janitor to pay for his classes.

At age 25, he became the first leader of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, the name would later be changed to Tuskegee University. 

Booker T. later purchased a plantation his students, with their hands, his students literally built their own school.

They made bricks, built classrooms, barns and outbuildings.  The students also grew their own crops and raised livestock. Women were students also and were required to participate and had to learn trades as well as academics. 

He believed that by learning life skills, the students would be sufficient and create communities that would be sufficient as too. 

His goal was that the students would take their learning/education with them once they returned back to their communities and build them.  

He would lead Tuskegee Institute for over 30 years. He would also support schools that produced teachers, again believing that education was key in building lives of African Americans, to impoverished rural communities. 

Other African American leaders didn’t agree with Booker T.’s approach but it didn’t stop him. 

The Progressive Era

He was also a financial contributor to the Progressive Era because he formed the National Negro Business League. 

This league encouraged entrepreneurship among black businessmen, establishing a national network.

Booker T. dies in 1915. 

His second autobiography, Up from Slavery, was published in 1901, it became a bestseller!  It remained the best- selling autobiography of an African American for over sixty years!

Thank you, Booker T. for your tenacity and love for education and training. 

You are a reminder that community matters and that we can be responsible in building and maintaining our community.

Picture credit: Picry.com