Booker T. Washington Educator
- Gender: Male
- Citizenship: United States
- Born: Apr 5, 1856
- Died: Nov 14, 1915
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community.
Washington was of the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants, who were newly oppressed by disfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1895 his Atlanta compromise called for avoiding confrontation over segregation and instead putting more reliance on long-term educational and economic advancement in the black community.
His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech in Atlanta that made him nationally famous. The speech called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship. His message was that it was not the time to challenge Jim Crow segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters in the South.
There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.
power
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
life & success
We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.
men
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
work
If you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams.
dreams
Character is power.
power
Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
being alone & being good
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.
trust
At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.
education, politics & religion
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
strength