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Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)

Author of Up from Slavery

84+ Works 5,259 Members 47 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1856 - 1915 Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Hales Ford, Virginia, near Roanoke. After the U.S. government freed all slaves in 1865, his family moved to Malden, West Virginia. There, Washington worked in coal mines and salt furnaces. He went on to attend the show more Hampton, Virginia Normal and Agricultural Institute from 1872-1875 before joining the staff in 1879. In 1881 he was selected to head the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a new teacher-training school for blacks, which he transformed into a thriving institution, later named Tuskegee University. His controversial conviction that blacks could best gain equality in the U.S. by improving their economic situation through education rather than by demanding equal rights was termed the Atlanta Compromise, because Washington accepted inequality and segregation for blacks in exchange for economic advancement. Washington advised two Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, on racial problems and policies, as well as influencing the appointment of several blacks to federal offices. Washington became a shrewd political leader and advised not only Presidents, but also members of Congress and governors. He urged wealthy people to contribute to various black organizations. He also owned or financially supported many black newspapers. In 1900, Washington founded the National Negro Business League to help black business firms. Washington fought silently for equal rights, but was eventually usurped by those who ideas were more radical and demanded more action. Washington was replaced by W. E. B. Du Bois as the foremost black leader of the time, after having spent long years listening to Du Bois deride him for his placation of the white man and the plight of the negro. He died in 1915. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Works by Booker T. Washington

Up from Slavery (1901) 4,215 copies
Three Negro Classics (1901) 438 copies
The Negro Problem (1903) 44 copies
Character Building (1902) 29 copies
My Larger Education (1911) 23 copies
Frederick Douglass (1970) 10 copies
The Negro in Business (1907) 8 copies
The Story of Slavery (1913) 7 copies
Working with the Hands (2009) 7 copies
The Negro Problem (2017) 3 copies
Heroes in black skins (1903) 2 copies
Daily Resolves (1896) 1 copy
Atlanta Compromise (2014) 1 copy

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Reviews

The narrator for this book wasn’t my favorite.
 
Flagged
scathach01 | 37 other reviews | Apr 4, 2023 |
Rating this a 5 based on historical importance.

This is not so much an autobiography of Booker T. Washington, a great man indeed, but of his life's work - the founding of what is now Tuskegee University.

After reading this book I understand why it's controversial, but it's always important to take things in context - why it was written, who it was written for, the experiences of the person writing, and the time in which it was written. Although I will admit that I was occasionally taken aback by a few things Washington writes.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, learned much, and it inspired me to want to know more.

Recommended.
… (more)
 
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paroof | 37 other reviews | Nov 27, 2022 |
Whatever charges of too much faith in white folks giving black folks their rights,
via their "pleasure" or "duty,"
Booker T. Washington created The Tuskegee Institute with No building or supplies!

He borrowed $500, bought 10 acres of land (in Alabama!) and built a school based on agriculture,
construction, education and a successful brick foundry.

Along with his many other gifts - advisor to Theodor Roosevelt and fund raiser supreme among them -
he was well known as a Great Teacher!

Unfortunately, his lightweight descriptions of the horrors of slavery contradict all of his
fellow men and women who had been enslaved.
… (more)
 
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m.belljackson | 37 other reviews | Sep 5, 2022 |
Washington chronicles his life from experiencing emancipation when he was young, to struggling to learn as much as he could while enduring a difficult life of child labor, to not only finding a school in which he became educated but also teaching there and then building his own school literally from the ground up.
An important book still, all these years later. I'm very glad I finally got round to reading it.
 
Flagged
electrascaife | 37 other reviews | Jun 19, 2022 |

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