Booker T Washington's Impact On American Education

Booker T. Washington was the most important black educator of the late and early 20th centuries; he positively impacted the history of America. Booker Taliaferro was born a mulatto slave in Franklin County, Virginia on April 5th 1856. Booker had 3 other si His father was an unknown white man and his mother was a slave of James Burroughs. His mothers “master” was a small farmer from Virginia. His mother got married to a man named Washington Ferguson. When booker started school he took his stepfathers name and became known as Booker T. Washington. After the civil war the family moved Malden, West Virginia. When the emancipation proclamation was read to booker and his family in front of the Burroughs house, his family soon left to join his stepfather
Consequently his major achievement was to win over diverse elements among Southern whites, without their support the programs he envisioned and brought into being would have been impossible. In addition to Tuskegee Institute, which still educates many today, Booker instituted many different programs for rural extension work, and helped to establish the National Negro Business League (NNBL). In September, 1895, Washington became a national figure when his speech at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta was widely reported by the country's newspapers. Washington's conservative views made him popular with white politicians who were keen that he should become the new leader of the African American population. To help him in this President William McKinley visited the Tuskegee Institute and praised Washington's achievements. Shortly after the election of President William McKinley in 1896, a movement was set in motion that Washington be named to a cabinet post, but he withdrew his name from consideration, preferring to work outside the political arena. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to visit him in the White House. To southern whites this was going too far. One editor wrote: "With our long-matured views on the subject of social intercourse between blacks and whites, the least we can say now
Washington's large financial responsibilities have made him dependent on the rich charitable public and that, for this reason, he has for years been compelled to tell, not the whole truth, but that part of it which certain powerful interests in America wish to appear as the whole truth."Although he now had a large number of critics, Washington continued to be consulted by powerful white politicians and had a say in the African American appointments made by Theodore Roosevelt and William H.