Booker T Washington * Flashcards
What was embodied in his career and philosophy?
Set Tuskegee Institute in Alabama 1881 and National Urban League to help African Americans adjust to economy. Told African Americans to dip their buckets and accept white supremacy but work within.
How did he establish his career?
Born in 1856, lived on Virginia plantation for first 9 years and first black man to receive Harvard Honourary Degree. During years of rugged individualism, he promoted self help. 1872-5 attended Hampton Agricultural Institute founded by Samuel Armstrong in 1968, Virginia, and made Tuskegee Institute of Alabama President in 1881, teaching black smithing and wheel-making.
What did Washington argue in 1895 Atlanta Speech?
1895 Atlanta International Exposition, argued black people couldn’t prosper until they glorified common labour, and within white supremacist system they could gain economic rights. This was lauded by whites in the Old South.
How did Washington cement his reputation?
He was an adviser on civil rights to Theodore Roosevelt and McKinley, alongside having tea with Queen Victoria, 1896. Jim Crow Laws did worsen during this time, but Washington was a realist. He set up the National Negro Business League in 1900 followed by the National Urban League in 1911 to promote equal opportunities. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie gave him $600,000 in bonds.
Who were opponents of Washington?
Civil rights activists argued he should have encouraged African Americans to be more aggressive. WEB Du Bois, born in the North with a Harvard degree, argued more resistance at the 1905 Niagara Conference, and in 1909 founded NAACP. Ida B Wells was a journalist and NAACP member who had to flee Memphis when her office was burned by a mob. Madam C J Walker was the first free in a sharecropper family and the first female black millionaire, establishing a black hair cream.
What happened in 1906?
1906, Brownsville Texas, black troops court martialled for alleged riots. Washington tried to bring court cases to challenge segregation.
