by Mu Octavis Taalib
Back in June 2019, my colleague and I arrived in Roanoke as part of an education research tour of historical sites featuring African American themes. We wanted to get a sense of what led Booker T. Washington to dismiss “agitations of social equality” as “extremist folly.” We would then relay this insight in our new book entitled: Education Enigma: What American Historical Sites Teach Us about the Education of Ex-Enslaved Africans (Kindle Edition, 2019).
Our travels took us from Maryland across Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and beyond to Oklahoma. We made one other stop to honor Washington in Malden, West Virginia, where landmarks and monuments have been erected in his honor. It was fitting, we thought, to honor the man whose works enabled us and millions more to come also included a stop in New Canton where Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born.
It should be noted from the outset that the two men, Washington and Woodson, although born and raised within 100 miles of each other, shared vastly different approaches to educating the newly freed slaves. The subject matter may be all too familiar, but just a few words here to acknowledge the combined effect that location, environment, and upbringing can have on a young person’s life. Limitations aside, we find in persons like Dr. Woodson an unusual motivation and personal willingness to endure hardships. The combination can make a difference between having a productive and happy life and living an unfulfilled one.
The same could be said, of course, about fellow Virginian and educator, Booker T. Washington. Admittedly, our research tour was just one of many that has come and gone and many more will surely roll through Virginia in the years to come.
Booker T. Washington received a national park in his honor, Dr. Woodson did not. Washington was a conciliatory figure in American life, Dr. Woodson was not. Washington did most of his work in the South, Woodson did not. Washington was born into slavery, while Woodson was not. But both were teachers and had the best interest of their people at heart. Clearly however, Washington became the more notable of the two, but whose work is more enduring has yet to be determined.
Washington’s strong desire to learn is the central message. To do that, he had to endure being dirt poor for the greater part of his youth. From our understanding, it seemed that he was in agony over not being able to change his condition fast enough. As a young boy, he is seen as being aware of his surroundings and knowing that he could do better. His will, determination, and drive toward his passion are seen as being ‘off the charts’ and it is related that the boy would stop at nothing until he fulfilled his dreams of being educated.
Young Booker T. had self-taught himself as best he could. In Malden, after some turbulence, Booker soon found comfort in the friendship and mentorship of the Reverend Lewis Rice, who led the establishment in 1852 of the African Zion Baptist Church there. Rice gave Booker his first taste of schooling. He was quick to absorb everything the Reverend put before him and thirsted for more. From the men working inside the salt works, he heard of an advanced school for Blacks located in Hampton, VA. In 1872, Booker Taliaferro Washington reached Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and again absorbed everything that was taught to him. Hampton Institute educated a good number of Black educators for the task of transferring knowledge and good character among the ex-Enslaved Africans for their upliftment in American society.
“The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality are the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”
– Booker T. Washington
We speculated what might have been the results had Washington taken a harder, more rigid stance against the slaughter and misery of the times. Later, as appointed head of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, he became a Black leader and a force to be reckoned with as he built dozens of alliances and affiliations. Not only did he form ties with rich and powerful ‘White’ elites, but also with the Black middle class and Black churches across the South. All that aside, the two of us agreed that with his rare, exceptional gift for strategic planning and the ability to maneuver around opposition notwithstanding, still he would have eventually gotten himself lynched or otherwise killed.
Looking back over his history, we think Booker T. Washington was one of the most honorable, courageous men, ‘White’ or Black, in American history. “Up from Slavery,” beating the odds, hobnobbing with ‘White’ folks, creating opportunities for millions of Blacks, leaving legacies, being an example … well, that was Booker T. Washington. You have to tip your hat to the man. He deserves more than a national monument and park, in our humble opinion. The dude was walking inspiration in person.
As we left Roanoke, we pondered the ‘what ifs’ and ‘whys’ of a time and a man whose very life pointed towards a more hardened approach to the question of upliftment of a race of people. But, it was time to move on. Keeping it real, we accepted the man’s philosophy for what it meant… as did Washington when he accepted the course of racial segregation and a subservient position by Blacks. He simply did not favor agitation and confrontation.
