Booker T. Washington: The Life and the Legacy

[Music] here is 1881 the place Tuskegee Alabama with 2,000 residents most of them people of color it's the smallest county seat in the state anti black violence is not uncommon segregation continues to separate the races socially politically and economically yet it is hair that young Booker T Washington will bring Tuskegee Institute into being [Music] barely 24 years of age this young man will create a chain of events over the next 34 years of his life that will affect all Americans black and white from 1881 to 1915 he will achieve what to many is considered the impossible he will build one of the most impressive education institutions in all of our all America he will in addition become the center of heated controversy debate even riots and by the time of his death his name will be known throughout the world you want to know about his days here is that the idea that's right general I believe Washington was 16 when he came to Hampton he just should have seen him when he got to the campus he walked most of the way 400 miles from the West Virginia coal country where he lived Samuel Chapman arms mile founder of Hampton Inn want you to know ginger it was hair under Armstrong that Booker T Washington developed his ideas on industrial education he went back home to West Virginia after graduation did some teaching dabbled in politics even went to a Seminary in Washington for a bit I brought him back here in 79 put him in charge of the Indian students we had about 75 of them he did a fine job a fine job indeed and then came to settle right and when those gentlemen asked my advice it didn't take me long to make up my mind history proved me right don't you think despite the obstacles and difficulties in fronts and setting up Tuskegee Institute Washington maintains an optimism about the this place that most people find hard to accept his first impressions of the town fill in with a sense of opportunity before starting for Tuskegee I found it almost impossible to locate on any map but instead of finding my work in the low marshy country as I expected I find Tuskegee a beautiful quiet town with a high and healthy location as a rule the colored people all through this section of poor and ignorant but the one encouraging thing is that they see their weaknesses and are desirous please Matthew come today as I watching TV so that our first while filling the ruins of the rest his ability to influence important individuals and win their support for his visionary goals far exceeds the modest hopes of his most lighting supporters for this backwards that will happen in a few months when the next group of students come in the one following night I found the farms well 100 acres will have space a shop in classroom who needed back several hundred dollars to secure the property he don't have that kind of money I've contacted General James Marshall of Massachusetts he's a dear friend of General Armstrong and quite well fix like many wealthy white people in the north he believes very strongly in our work in the offender month he has prints of the money Booker you know always three steps ahead of everybody your ass cousin but I suppose your Yankee benefactor will put up buildings - no sir we will if we need Brooks will make them we're dedicated to an ideal mr. Campbell nothing else bought that students can produce it is our object to surround the student with such an air business and industry that it will be next to impossible for him not to make himself self an active business or some other sphere of usefulness that place we don't you I didn't come in to be no strict lair what that you say we nothing sir look don't sass me boy I said I didn't come here to be a bricklayer I guess you'd rather be somewhere learning Greek is that what you think an education is all about you're from Johnson Alabama yes sir tell me William do many negroes and open seat Greek shelter for half but they all need $2,000 and even real bad until you best feel you can serve your neighbor down and open by speaking Greek home or help them to build a better house I understand sir I hope so we thought rule to do now let's get back to it Washington's iron will and strong sense of discipline for art wonders an institution began to grow out of the Alabama mud for the South's young blacks a new era of educational opportunity is dawning one of the supreme irony in Washington's career concerns the very contributions that allowed us Kiki to expand and prosper his critics will claim that by his dependence on the kindness of the Carnegie's and the Rockefellers but Baldwin's to finance the Institute Washington has become their unwitting tool forced by his needs for their continued support into adopting positions that may not necessarily reflect the best interests of the country's blacks Long Island Railroad president William Henry Baldwin jr. became Washington's great friend as well as his staunch supporter mr. Baldwin I understand that you're very supportive of Booker T Washington oh yes I'm - mr. Washington because the work he is doing at custody is exactly right not just for the colored people but for the entire serve he's not a firebrand rabble rouser is a master politician who knows we're sitting on a powder keg and he understands that most white people will never accept the girls as their social equals it's an impossibility mr. Baldwin I think there are many negroes and some whites who would disagree with that state and they are not intelligent or very liova stupidness oh I know there are some liberal white people some over educated Negroes who seem to be talking against Tuskegee what they're really against Booker T Washington's politics his political role is growing there of course but as political enemies shouldn't let their opposition blind them to the simple fact that tuskegee works it is training thousands of Negroes and doing a fine job of it I look around this house schools based on his philosophy are springing up all over among those applying for a teaching position is a hobbit man wTB Dubois though accepted he'll instead take a position at a black college in the Midwest and will become the premier black intellectual of his era looming large in the controversies that will increasingly demonstrate the complexities of Washington's character under Washington's stewardship the Institute is well on its way to becoming an educational model uniquely suited to the needs of the southern black community in Washington understands so well he works ceaselessly keeping abreast of every detail of the school's operation continuum also his exhausting schedule of fundraising appearance national recognition comes with his speech before the National Education Association in 1884 and also as a result of the nationwide success of his autobiography up from slavery America learns that there are blacks in the south seriously trying to shape their own destiny developing plans for survival and advancement despite the hostility of many of their white neighbors the word goes out that this little campus in the back waters of Alabama is becoming a major force in southern life William Baldwin remembers it was the Atlanta exposition that really put us over Frederick Douglass and recently died you see and his death left a great vacuum in the Negro leadership Booker T Washington filled it the exposition was a big event the biggest it was to show the world that the South was on a speed again strong and proud recovered from the war and reconstruction and were acres of exhibits every aspect of southern life was on display and Booker T Washington stole the show when he spoke at the opening Day ceremonies his was the voice of every Negro in the nation will perhaps not quite everyone on that day my friend he spoke for all of them I was so nervous I couldn't even go to the hall I just wandered around outside until I heard he appalled when he's run away mother I thought it would never talk it said the wrong thing our years of work Tuskegee would have been obliterated in a single day but we can see that they coped with an angel silver tongue those are my what that to me the important cultivating Trinity relations with a southern white man who is the next-door neighbor I would say cast down your bucket where you are that's down by making friends in every manly way are the people of always my whom we are surrounded agriculture in mechanic's and covers in domestic service and in a profession nobody can pasta can a burn much dignity and killing the field as invited aboard nor should we allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunity the whole thing that are purely social we can be as separate entities yes is one of the hands and all that are in neutral for over now he comes in the hives of both black and white the anointed leader of Negro America that we easy to voice remembers it startled the nation to hear a Negro advocating such a program of accommodation after decades a lot of people complain to it it startles and one the applause of the fouls it interested in lonely acclaim the north and after confused murmur protests its violent if it didn't convert the Negroes themselves so you supported Washington at this point as a matter of fact I I was here I wrote a letter to that effect is my dear mr. Washington let me heartily congratulate you upon your phenomenal success at Atlanta it was a word fitly spoken I thought at the time that the Atlanta compromise could be step toward reaching the real settlement between blacks and whites to us of course the hardening of white attitudes and the black subsequent loss of voting rights throughout the region killed any chance of that Frank Radice that he was Washington had important considerations and calling for social separation and the South that was experiencing lynching flogging and other forms of violence by the Ku Klux Klan and other vigilante groups perhaps he remembered the genocide of the parents and grandparents of his Indian students at Hampton Institute then the Atlanta compromise he extended his diplomatic skills for there as well and we can be sure that he was vitally concerned with the safety and future of his beloved Tuskegee Institute which he strongly believed was the key to Afro America's success in the future by the time of the compromise Tuskegee Institute is making valuable contributions to the advancement of the southern white and black community there is much to preserve and protect there are 37 builders and all the three built by the students own oh 700 acres of farmland careful cultivation a dairy and in this closet of livestock provide food and practical agricultural experience for the students there are nearly a thousand of them on campus the curriculum offers instruction in 27 vocations and all of the building trades carriage and wagon making harness making millinery printed tailoring industrial education is coming of age the 70-member faculty now includes the agricultural chemist George Washington Carver he Institute's at Washington's request a comprehensive agricultural outreach service symbolized by the Japheth wagon also on the drawing staff of distinguished individuals is Emmett Jay Scott a former journalist he carries the title of private secretary to the men he calls the wizard Scott says Washington with devotion and a measure of ruthlessness powering the sophisticated political and public relations operation that the boys will come to term the infernal Tuskegee machine it's going to be proudly very Negro in the lenses everything you can carefully plan down the last flower on the first I'm setting the schedule of the White House this afternoon President McKinley want some ideas for his speech like this he should say something to encourage colored people to get education how to build a character building little faces of good citizenship and he should put him something about both ways of the knowledge friendly self controlled put it in your own words I'll finally see to it immediately get editorial in qts Chicago conservative was very unfair completely misrepresented two opinions the press was your department mr. Scott just be as tactful as possible you can depend on that said the president came and it was indeed a grand and glorious day a relationship is filled washington's career as a formidable political power broker begin [Music] The Oaks designed by the talented black architect Robert Robinson Taylor who was responsible for the design of most of the early campus buildings Margaret Murray after her first year on campus Washington is so impressed by miss Murray's work as a teacher that he selects her as the Institute's lady principal their relationship blossoms on October 12 1892 Margaret Murray and Booker T Washington are married raised in a Quaker home and an honor graduate of Fisk University Margaret Murray plays a major role in the Institute's growth in addition to supervising the Institute's women's programs she helps to organize self-help groups for black women in the town of tusky and in the sharecropping communities in the surrounding countryside as her husband becomes increasingly concerned with fundraising and political activities that take him away from Tuskegee for long periods mrs. Washington becomes in fact an extension of his presence on campus from the standpoint of black survival in the hostile racial climate of the south the effects of the diplomatic skill can be seen on both international and local level [Music] you hide that no-good [ __ ] yeah this [ __ ] can't be trusted I'm scared gentlemen my name is she thing but I would sacrifice our school here Tuskegee for him I'll turn Tom house away if you want to borrow Scott to take my wagon and get Tom house to dr. Cobb stops tonight tell them to get him out of the county tonight here Oh every paper dams you haven't hypocrite Booker T Washington as a man who would cast his own brother into the claws of bloodthirsty mob now you must tell them the real truth tell them tell them what mr. Scott the real truth tell him that my campus is a refuge for radicals how long would Tuskegee vast let them take the people for the moment is teaching that but as America moves further and further away from reconstruction black aspirations so full and equal citizenship are increasingly repressed Booker T Washington's optimistic statements are no longer acceptable to many of the nation's black intellectuals men such as William Monroe Trotter Trotta symbolizes the opposition of a growing number of black intellectuals to Washington's policies of accommodation he denounces Washington spirit of course rightly confronted the humanizing aspects of southern segregation on July 30th 1903 confrontation with Washington which trotted when thinking comes to pass they call it the Boston riot meeting it with Washington is to speak becomes a shouting match Washington is silent seemingly detached from the turbulent scene police stormed into the auditorium panicked follows Trotter and several of his colleagues are dragged from the church and arrested across the country that is front-page news the so-called Boston riot made the public aware for the first time really that there was serious the Negro opposition to Washington's policies press certainly couldn't ignore this event although I'm sure they would like to when now they were forced to publish fathers opinions that people saw that many of his criticisms were valid and after he served a 30-day jail sentence there was a feeling when I shared it that Washington and Scott were persecuting the man so from a point of view with the opposition in the demonstration was a rousing success and you began to move into the enemy camp the machine was pushing me in that direction Washington built Tuskegee a great institution but I'm afraid he was a captive of his own political ambitions he would work no opposition or criticism particularly from his fellow after legs first must talk about Du Bois and trata a great northern intellectuals it's easy to be critical of America when you live in the north there are frustrated mr. Kratz chattering on about the talented tenth at the expense of the black masses what do they know about the sharecroppers life do they know about the terrible fears that baby black man woman and child has to live with every day of their lives in the South how the south is where the overwhelming majority of our people live now and forever that much be the central fact and defining a political position for black people in this country not some abstract demand for justice but Dubois has spent some years in the South mr. Washington has he not he doesn't feel it here what counts this is my land and even my people I'm fighting for what's best for the masses of American Negroes to voices Oh frustrated snob you send this back on the black mat to go to Washington and then to do Oh mr. Washington we have uncovered evidence that Syria supporters you and Emmett Scott have attempted to subvert black opposition to your policies and that the so-called Tuskegee machine has tried to destroy economically men such as William Monroe Trotter who haven't forgotten anything of it broken out against your leadership of the race how would you react to that sir young man history will be my judge not you as the 19th century phase into history Washington star reaches its zenith more than ever his tireless fundraising activities swell the coffers of Tuskegee and other southern schools that follow his philosophy of industrial education Tuskegee continues to under his leadership despite the raging controversies considered tragic by many it will be 50 buildings on campus 2,000 students and an endowment that exceeds 2 million dollars two thousand black men and women will have graduated from the Institute five times that number have spent some time in their lives of solving the tuskegee spirit on a personal level Washington and his family are amply provided for by his friend Andrew Carnegie so much so that he is able to give up his salary at Tuskegee at home Washington finds rest and relaxation in his morning rides on his horse Dexter and in tending to his livestock and his garden but by 1913 his health is beginning to fail while on a fundraising tour he collapses in New York [Music] Margaret Mary Washington remembers Oh many things he wanted to do Tuskegee mrs. Washington I realize this is very painful for you but could you recall could you try to recall the final days and you need an answer the question of course I got the telegram and headed by the way for the station I don't remember much about the ride north just I prayed a lot and I cried a lot I got to New York there was a car waiting to take me to st. Luke's Hospital I went into the room the doctors there mr. Scott was there the doctor said that there was a chance they could save him if he stayed in New York after they finished talking I I turned to my husband he read the question in my head Margaret I was born in the south I've lived labored in the south and I will die and be buried brought him home he survives the arduous train trip home by a mere five hours on the morning of November 14th Booker T Washington passes peacefully away he is buried in the campus cemetery 10,000 people gathered to pay their last respects messages of condolence are received from around the world memorial services are held across America w eb Dubois though the foremost black opponent of Washington's racial and political philosophy pays a final tribute to the wizard of Tuskegee Booker T Washington was the greatest Negro leaders and Frederick Douglass and the most distinguished man white or black who has come out of the South since the Civil War the good that he accomplished can be known throughout the history of afro-american Washington's influence can be found almost everywhere the economic program of Marcus Garvey and the self-help movement of the 1960s calling for economic self-determination all has an origins in Washington's philosophy at the beginning of the Civil War four million black people were living in slavery [Music] Booker Taliaferro Washington was one of them the turbulent and to this day controversial life is over the legacy of Tuskegee endure [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: US National Archives

Views: 85,345

Keywords: US National Archives, NARA

Id: ew05QCsYcGA

Length: 31min 41sec (1901 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2017