Booker T. Washington's childhood was one of deprivation, poverty, slavery and hard labor. Born in 1856 into slavery he was deemed the property of a one James Burroughs of Virginia. His father virtually unknown, he was raised by his mother and put to work as early as possible. Since it was illegal for an enslaved African to learn to read and write Washington received no education.

When slavery ended things did not fare much better for Washington. The former slaves were at first overjoyed with their newfound freedom, but it quickly became apparent that there was no place for most of them to go. As early as 9 years of age Washington took up hard work packing salt. Secretly however, he yearned to attend school. At age 16 he made up his mind to leave to attend Hampton University for blacks. Not knowing his fate, he arrived penniless and hungry on their doorsteps in 1872.

The school was run by a white philanthropist: General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Its main focus was to create black teachers. But Armstrong also believed that blacks should have a practical trade and a near Puritan work ethic, contending that higher forms of studies (arts, literature, etc.) would do Negroes no good. Washington's trade was that of a janitor. These lessons of hard work and the proper role for blacks sent down by General Armstrong would profoundly affect the young Washington, and shape his ideologies in later life.

Following graduation Washington became a teacher in Tinkersville, West Virginia for three years. In 1878 he left to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington DC, but quit after six months. In 1879 Armstrong asked him to return to Hampton Institute as a teacher. Washington did so, and then in 1881 Armstrong recommended him as the principal of a new school called Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. From humble beginnings this university rose to national prominence with such graduates as scientist George Washington Carver. The school gave Washington a great name in the South and in the nation. But Washington's fame would come not only with unbelievable power, but bitter controversy.

In 1895 Washington traveled to Atlanta to speak at the opening of the Cotton states and International Exposition. Washington, the only black speaker, gave a stirring speech that would cause the white audience to erupt into cheers. In his speech Washington said those words that white America had so wanted to hear from any black individual: "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". It was these seemingly non-threatening racial views that gave Washington the title of the "Great Accommodator". And while whites cheered Washington's speech, it was said with artistic flair that blacks in the audience were most likely simultaneously crying.

Washington encouraged blacks not to push for equal civil and political rights with whites. Rather blacks should concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement rested squarely on the shoulders of the black race he believed. Eventually whites would be forced to respect the black race, and civil and political rights would be obtained in such logical fashion.

To whites this was a very non-threatening and popular ideology, emphasizing the proper role they believed blacks should occupy. And financial giants such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller showered him with praise and money. Soon Washington became one of the most powerful men in black America. He became the "go to" man in black America. When influential whites wished to give money to black causes, they first asked the opinion of Washington. When they considered giving a prestigious position to any black person, they first consulted Washington. It was said of Washington, "He knew the Southern white man better than the Southern white man knew himself, and knew the sure road to his head and heart". But Washington's power would be challenged by a competing brand of black ideology: the very ones his white financial backers deemed as "militants" and "troublemakers".

Many other prominent black individuals who saw Washington's actions as detrimental to black empowerment and playing into the hands of whites. They called his actions and words "crimes" and acts of "dishonesty".

Henry McNeal Turner, the AME bishop, stated: "the colored man who will stand up and in one breath say that the Negroid race does not want social equality and in the next predict a great future in the face of all the proscription of which the colored man is the victim, is either an ignoramus, or is an advocate of the perpetual servility and degradation of his race..."

And others such as William Monroe Trotter and a newly prominent scholar named WEB DuBois began what escalated into a personal battle with his ideology.

Booker T. Washington's downfall has been blamed upon the fact that his methods, while producing an avenue for blacks, did not erase the hostile racist forces in America. Some critics argued that his refusal to fight for the basic human equality of blacks, led to increased acts of violence in the form of anti-black riots and lynching. Of course Washington did not intend for his ideologies to spur on such actions, but his seeming unwillingness to tackle this problem or speak out upon it enraged many blacks

The contradiction of his words and existence also moved many blacks to anger. Here was a black man who all the while decrying political gain, directed political agendas from Tuskeegee with money handed down from the wealthiest men in America: names like Carnegie and Rockefeller. Here was a man who decried social equality, but yet had dinner with none other than President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House, was a guest of the Queen of England at Windsor castle, rode in private railroad cars and stayed in top hotels.

Here was a man who shockingly blamed the lynching of a black man in Mississippi on "the lack of education of the blacks who were lynched". Yet he would turn about in the next sentence and warn whites, "It is unreasonable for any community to expect that it can permit Negroes to be lynched or burned in the winter, and then have reliable Negro labor to raise cotton in the summer".

And Washington was at times even a paradox to himself and his ideology. Though he in public opposed pushes for social equality, he secretly wrote memos to the American President: warning of the dangers of removing all black men from offices of power in the South. It was even rumored that he secretly gave money to causes of social equality behind closed doors.

In the end Booker T. Washington was a contradiction and a paradox. As his own parable went, he "cast his buckets" where he stood. Believing an attack on Jim Crow to be ineffective and perhaps even suicidal, he urged black America to instead focus on self-improvement and economic gain.

In some ways many feel that Booker T. Washington actually felt himself and blacks to be better than whites. Through hard work and fortitude they would show America the way to prosperity. The very thing that helped place him there however, caused Washington's ownfall: white supremacy. The violence and oppression against blacks didn't stop under Booker T. Washington's guidance; in fact it increased to near fever pitch.

It became apparent to many blacks that whites who had gained control of Southern institutions after Reconstruction did not ever want the civil and political status of blacks to improve - regardless of how hard they worked or how much character they had. They passed laws to keep blacks from voting and to keep blacks from mixing with whites in schools, stores and restaurants. They lynched black men and women alike for the slightest infraction and went on violently murderous rampages that sent blacks fleeing from their own towns and businesses. Persons such as WEB DuBois, after seeing the severed knuckles of a black lynching victim displayed on ice in the window of a white butcher shop, became certain that Washington's ideologies had to go.

Many blacks lost sight of Washington's dream and came to believe that a more forceful, demanding approach was needed. They turned to the leadership of figures such as William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. DuBois and the newly created NAACP.

But Washington's legacy of self-improvement would manifest itself in various organizations and individuals including the National Business League, black business districts such as those in Tulsa Oklahoma, black universities and even later movements such as Marcus Garvey's UNIA and Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam. And as such figures as Dubois and groups like the NAACP came into existence in part greatly for the purpose of opposing the massive power of Washington and his "Tuskegee Machine", one can say he was even indirectly responsible for their rise.

Paradox he may have been, but his role in black political development remains certain. Remaining a contradiction to the very end, Booker T. Washington's final magazine article was published only after his death in November 15, 1906. Surprising to his critics and everyone perhaps except himself, it was ironically enough an article attacking segregation and social inequality.

For More Info See:

Electronic Version of "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington (download) gopher://ftp.std.com:70/00/obi/book/Booker.T.Washington/Up.From.Slavery.Z

Booker T. Washington- Encyclopedia Encarta http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=04925000

Progress of a People: Booker T. Washington http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aap/bookert.html