My+Career

//"Making bricks without straw" //
Tuskegee was founded in 1881 on a request by George W. Campbell and Lewis Adams a former slave owner and slave, to the Alabama Legislature. That same year the State provided "$2,000 for teachers' salaries but nothing for land, buildings, or equipment". So, in July of that year, Booker T. Washington at the age of 25 became the first principal of the Tuskegee Normal School with the objective of producing teachers to teach the masses of former slaves (NPS, 2000).

This task weighed heavily on Washington, to which he compared to "making bricks without straw". That July, classes were held in a church and old abandoned cabin with a beginning class of 30 students. Drawing deeply on his roots and curriculum borrowing heavily from his time at the Hampton School, Washington began in earnest. As you will see in these Wiki pages, he not only succeeded but went on to be among the most successful African American in history.

Timeline: The Education and Teaching Career of Booker Washington // 1872-1875 // : Student at the Hampton Institute // 1875-1877 // : Teacher in Malden, West Virginia // 1878-1879 // : Studies in Washington, D.C. // 1879-1881 // : Works as an Instructor at Hampton Institute // July 1881 // : Appointed First Principal at Tuskegee Normal School & Agricultural Institute // 1881-1915 // : First President of Tuskegee Normal School & Agricultural Institute

Despite his humble beginnings, perhaps no man American, white or black, has accomplished so much for his race as did Booker T. Washington. Certainly, his pursuit of lifelong teaching and learning at Tuskegee serve as an example to all of His struggle for equality through access to education while epoch epitomizes the importance of pursuing an education. His nearly forty years as a teacher and mentor to so many were spent in the pursuit of personal and professional development and industrial excellence, where he grew his reputation as a leader and public speaker for the South, which led him to earn many honors and solidified his place in the history of the nation. There were many firsts in his long and storied career, which Washington himself would include as the the most important-the first in his family to get an education, the first black president of an institution of higher learning, first African American to receive and honorary degree from Harvard (or any of the New England Colleges), and first African American to be celebrated in the commemoration of an American stamp and coin, among others.

//Source: National Park Service//