Booker T. Washington

David Clark
September 28, 2005
Mini Report-Booker T. Washington
Charlie Frazier
Clark 1

A True Leader

He was a writer, educator, community leader, organization founder, college president, and a school founder.   Most sources consider him the first national black leader after slavery (Smith 1181).   This prolific man graced the earth on April 5, 1856 near Hale's Ford, Virginia (Kranz & Koslow 251).   This great African American became one of the great leaders of the African-American community.   This great man happens to be Booker Taliaferro Washington (Christmas 244).
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery.   Although his time spent as a slave was not that long, the slavery experience molded Washington into the great leader he was and the slavery experience shaped Washington's theories.   After the bonds of physical slavery were broken, Washington's mother moved the family to West Virginia.   While living in West Virginia, Washington began labor in the coal mines and the painstaking process of educating himself.   Washington was encouraged to continue his education by the wife of the coal mine owner.   At the age of sixteen, Washington left home in an attempt to get an education (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbooker.htm).

Clark 2
Booker T. Washington enrolled at Hampton Institute; Samuel Armstrong, an opponent of slavery and a leader of African American troops during the Civil War, was the president of Hampton Institute.   Hampton Institute served as an institution that taught normal classes and a trade to the black students.   Through Washington's eyes, Samuel Armstrong would come to be seen as a father figure.   The teachings from Armstrong and Hampton Institute would be the basis for most of Washington's ideologies (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbooker.htm). Washington would graduate with honors from Hampton Institute and a dream of how he could help the black and white community coexist (Kranz & Koslow 252).  
Washington's big... [continues]

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