Vocational Training And Racism

Washington was born a slave in Virginia. Washington was a humble man, but yet very stern. As a child, he worked for a white family, where he learned the meaning of cleanliness, and personal morality. He went to school at Hampton Institute, this was one of the earliest freedom schools devoted to industrial education. Washington grew up during reconstruction. Being one of the few African Americans to finish school, he became a teacher. He believed that education was important, so he established a Tuskegee Institute in Alabama at the age of twenty-five.

W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more

Washington was born into slavery in 1856, despite this he received an education at the Hampton Institute, a school designed to educate African Americans and Native Americas. In 1881, Washington built and became the headmaster at a school, the Tuskegee Institute, which was virtually all black in population. From this Washington lived a comfortable life and was able to give a number of addresses regarding issues of black rights. Washington’s famous speech, the Atlanta Exposition address, was given in 1895.The address was a speech designed to seek compromise between the races, through asking for greater treatment from white Southerners, in return for positive economic cooperation through educating black people in the industrial spheres. Washington

Of the two most prolific and acclaimed voices in the anti-slavery movements of the early 20th Century, W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington stand as peerless giants across from one another. The former seeing the pursuit of education in a hallowed light, while the latter praising the simplicity of practicality; Du Bois and Washington clashed in their methods for African Americans to achieve equality, following the aftermath of emancipated slavery. At this time in the United States, African Americans still experienced severe segregation and discrimination, both socially and economically, with their newfound freedom only bringing them out of the frying pan and into the fire. While Du Bois advocated for blacks to educate themselves, with the same higher education whites received in order to advance both socially and politically, Washington called for blacks to immerse in vocational skills in order to win

Born a slave on a Virginia farm, Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) rose to become one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. He was nine years old when the Civil War ended. He worked hard as a young child and at 16, he left home to attend Hampton Institute. One of the few black high schools in the South, it focused on industrial and agricultural training while maintaining an extremely structured curriculum that stressed discipline and high moral character. Washington thrived in that environment. He eventually went on to head a new school in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute was devoted to the training of black teachers, farmers, and skilled workers. Under his

In his 1901 autobiography Up From Slavery author, educator, and orator Booker T. Washington chronicles his rise from Virginia slave to President of Tuskegee Institute. The work outlines Washington’s roadmap for racial uplift which is centered on agricultural and industrial education. Washington argued that hard work and virtuous living — traits instilled African Americans during slavery— would demonstrate the value African Americans possessed to the South and the nation. Operating within the political realities of the time, Washington was able to mobilize a coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, white philanthropists, and politicians from the North and South to build Tuskegee Institute and his vision for the African American community. However, Washington’s strategy asked for African Americans to put aside immediate demands for voting and the end of racial segregation. Washington’s willingness to publicly side step these civil rights issues to advocate for slow progress towards true equality earned him powerful critics such as NAACP president W.E.B. DuBois and journalist William Trotter. By the time of Washington’s death in 1915, Jim Crow laws entrenched segregation throughout the South. Washington’s plan for racial uplift was pragmatic and realistic. However, his advocacy for dignity in labor played into white stereotypes that black men and women were made solely for labor.

Booker T. Washington contended for African Americans to first improve themselves through education, industrial training, and business ownership. Equal rights would certainly come later, he believed. He used the Hampton Institute, with its emphasis on agricultural and industrial training, as his model. Washington argued that African Americans must first focus on educating themselves, learning useful trades, and investing in their own businesses. Hard work, economic progress, and merit, he believed, would prove to whites the value of blacks to the American economy. Washington believed that his vision for black people would eventually lead to equal political and civil rights. In the meantime, he advised blacks to put aside immediate demands for voting and ending racial segregation. In his famous address to the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, Washington acknowledged the reality of racial segregation. However, he insisted that African Americans be included in the economic progress of the South. Washington anounced to an all-white audience, "In all things social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." He went on to express his

On July 19, 1941, the Tuskegee Institute, started by Booker T. Washington, opened its first aviation cadet class. This was also the first pilot class to open for African American students. Historically, this was a major point for all blacks in America. This was an invite to prove their mettle fighting and piloting alongside white men. This program was run by Col. Noel F. Parrish. Many black men were excited and jumped to join the bandwagon. In fact, Lt. Col. Dryden stated, “We had to be number one, whether we were mechanics, cooks, maintenance.. Nurses, pilots or whatever! We had to be number one! That’s was to be expected.” This was the mind set and they proved it.

Washington's approach to solving the problems African Americans faced was rooted in his belief in an industrial education. Born a slave and educated at Hampton Institute Washington learned from a trade and skill based curriculum. He advocated a

DuBois was considered to be the inspiration for the literary movement known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” Du Bois also believed that if a small group of young black Americans could stay and retain the information in college educations, then they could be leaders of the race and encourage other black Americans to do the same and to reach a higher level of education. Contrary to Booker T. Washington. W.E.B. Du Bois assumed that if you wanted to achieve something and be good at it, you have to just got for it without turning back. Altered from Booker T. Washington, Du Bois understood that not all black men could go to college, but he believed that the ones that could, should, and should be able to succeed. There were six black institutions, and they were “Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Shaw, Wilberforce, and Leland, and in those six institutes, only seven hundred and fifty were black college students.” Du Bois take on a trade school was different then Washington’s take on a trade school. Du Bois had said that “trade schools cannot teach people skills and how to fund themselves while keeping industries on a commercial basis.” W.E.B. Du Bois had said that he thinks that there should be social change, and that this could happen if there was a small group of college educated blacks that would be called “the Talented Tenth.” With this Du Bois says: "The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Negroes, must first of all deal with the "Talented Tenth." It is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the worst."

Booker T. Washington's account of his own perseverence in securing his education is poignantly told in Up From Slavery. Yet with Washington's influence, a shift began from educating students in a liberal arts tradition to an industrial training mode. Unfortunately, by the turn of the century, with the help of the benefactor Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the Hampton-Tuskegee Idea had come to represent the ideological antithesis of the educational and social movement begun by ex-slaves (33). In order for freed slaves to fully participate in a democracy, a classical liberal curriculum was adopted in post-Civil War black, elementary, normal and collegiate schools. As James D. Anderson aptly points out,

She allowed him to go to school for an hour a day during the winter months. He began to realize that his calm, respectful, and obedient morals helped him climb in the social and educational hierarchy. He traveled long and far in order to receive a higher education at Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute in Virginia. He convinced the school administrators to let him attend classes there and took a job as a janitor to help pay his tuition. The school 's founder and headmaster, General Samuel C. Armstrong, soon discovered the boy’s determination and offered him a scholarship that was sponsored by a white man. Growing up, Booker payed attention to all of the racial injustice around him. In his personal experiences, the discrimination was lessened by his submissiveness to whites. Although he had more privileges than many other colored people, he urged his people to befriend white people in order to receive for opportunities just as he did. He explained this in his 1895 speech, “‘To those who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are’ －cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.” (Washington) He believed that in order to do this, allowing segregation and obeying what whites had established would create a bond and create friendships.

Booker T. Washington (1895-1915) was born a slave, but through hard work, dedication, and education pulled himself out of poverty to become the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1895 he delivered an address at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in which he offered what came to be known as the "Atlanta Compromise." Washington suggested that blacks should forgo immediate agitation for political and social equality with whites, and work first to lay a firm foundation of vocational education and economic strength within the black community. In return for that self-imposed restraint, whites would support blacks in their efforts to lift themselves up.

After being emancipated, slaves were granted little to no help from the government. Although the early intentions of the Freedmen’s Bureau included distributing land to freed slaves this did not happen on a grand scale. Document 2 explains that the slaves were “turned loose to the open sky” to fend for themselves. Often times discriminated against in the search for jobs, blacks found themselves not much better off economically than they were before, Document 4 demonstrates the fact that many were forced into tenant farming, which was not much better that their previous status, yet they were no longer anyone’s property even though they still lived on the same land. Black leaders such as Booker T. Washington began to encourage young blacks to get an education. His leaderships at tuskegee emphasized that a vocational education as necessary for social mobility and to earn the respect of whites. This in turn would lead to not only economic equality but also social and political equality.

According to Anderson (n.d.), the Reconstruction Era (1877) presented a unique problem for black professionals. Although more blacks were becoming qualified for educational and employment opportunities, the job demand shifted to industrial needs. For black leaders, having to get industrial training instead of a broader, more useful education was a beneficial short term answer for employment. The primary advocate for industrial training was Booker T. Washington. Washington, educated at the Tuskegee Institute located in Alabama, expressed publicly that manual labor will be more beneficial to individuals because that was the type of work available (Anderson, n.d.).