Booker T. Washington
By Austin Hatley - 5th Period
Background
Booker T. Washington was a black civil rights activist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He believed that through social and economic improvement African Americans would gain their rights. He founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama which focused on training African Americans in agricultural pursuits.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington publicly advocated for black rights and shared ideas on how to achieve his goals.
Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington
In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House to join him for a meal with his family. This is disobedient as segregation was law.
Education Leads to Equality
Booker T Washington believed that if African Americans proved themselves intellectually and economically then they could not be denied rights.
Booker T. Washington - Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington and Civil Disobedience
Booker T. Washington's ideas represent the same ideas found in Henry Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience". Thoreau states that the American government "does not keep the country free" which is accurate due to the fact that African Americans were oppressed. Booker T. Washington had to fight for the rights of people instead of the government properly doing their job and protecting those same people. In addition, Thoreau states, "governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves". Booker T. Washington exemplifies this thought in his beliefs that black people set the tone for how they will be treated by others.