The following is excerpted from our new book History of Blacks in America and Their Baptist Churches. See the Free eBooks filter button at the Books section of www.wayoflife.org.  

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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was a slave who was liberated at age eight by Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during the U.S. Civil War (Jan. 1, 1863). The illiterate boy pursued an education and became a prominent educator, businessman, author, and orator. He promoted the uplifting of his people through education, moral integrity, and skilled labor. He was the first head of the Tuskegee Institute (today the Tuskegee University) where he befriended George Washington Carver.

Washington was a Christian. He was a Baptist. He began and ended each day in prayer and read the Bible to his family every morning. “As a man of deep personal faith in God, he would never speak publicly unless he had first sought ‘the blessing of God upon what [he] was about to say’” (“Christians You Should Know: Booker T. Washington,” EnjoyingtheJourney.org). “Throughout his life, Washington insisted that religion should be woven into everyday life, and that education without moral and spiritual cultivation was incomplete. At Tuskegee Institute, the school he founded, this conviction was reflected in a vibrant religious life: weekly preaching services, Sunday classes, prayer meetings, Christian Endeavor activities, and student involvement in the YMCA testified that the institute was not merely secular in purpose, but ‘thoroughly Christian.’ He declared that if nothing else had convinced him of Christianity’s worth, the Christlike work carried out by churches of all denominations for the uplift of Black Americans over decades would have made him a Christian. His perspective was shaped not by bitterness over injustice but by a heartfelt commitment to a faith that calls believers to patience, integrity, sacrifice, and love of neighbor” (“Booker T. Washington: A Spiritual Journey Rooted in Christ,” DewayneDunaway.com).

After the Civil War and the liberation of the blacks from slavery, there was a massive movement to educate them and to otherwise lift them out of their desolate condition, and there was a phenomenal eagerness on the part of the liberated slaves to obtain education. 

Literacy among Southern blacks increased from 5% in 1870 to 70% by 1900.

By December 1865, the Freeman’s Commission had “organized more than seven hundred schools, with twelve hundred teachers to serve seventy thousand pupils” (Mayer, All on Fire, p. 594). 

It was an unprecedented event in history. Booker T. Washington, who was in the midst of the phenomenon both as a learner and as a teacher, described it as follows:

“This experience of a whole race beginning to go to school for the first time, presents one of the most interesting studies that has ever occurred in connection with the development of any race. Few people who were not right in the midst of the scenes can form any exact idea of the intense desire which the people of my race showed for an education. As I have stated, it was a whole race trying to go to school. Few were too young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn. As fast as any kind of teachers could be secured, not only were day-schools filled, but night-schools as well. The great ambition of the older people was to try to learn to read the Bible before they died. With this end in view, men and women who were fifty or seventy-five years old would often be found in the night-school. Sunday-schools were formed soon after freedom, but the principal book studied in the Sunday-school was the spelling-book. Day-school, night-school, Sunday-school, were always crowded, and often many had to be turned away for want of room” (Washington, Up from Slavery, 1901).

Washington’s own experience illustrates the passion that liberated blacks had for education in his day. He learned to read by grabbing a little education here and there in the midst of hard labor (household servant, salt furnaces, coal mines), attending night classes, reading whatever he could put his hands on. Finally, at age 16, he determined to attend the Hamilton Institute in Virginia. 

“By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city, and this rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in the place, and, being unused to city ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at several places for lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what I did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets. In doing this I passed by many food-stands where fried chicken and half-moon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting appearance. At that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all that I expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of those chicken legs or one of those pies. But I could not get either of these, nor anything else to eat. I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired, I was hungry, I was everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of a street where the board sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till I was sure that no passers-by could see me, and then crept under the sidewalk and lay for the night upon the ground, with my satchel of clothing for a pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet over my head. The next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but I was extremely hungry, because it had been a long time since I had had sufficient food. As soon as it became light enough for me to see my surroundings I noticed that I was near a large ship, and that this ship seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron. I went at once to the vessel and asked the captain to permit me to help unload the vessel in order to get money for food. The captain, a white man, who seemed to be kind-hearted, consented. I worked long enough to earn money for my breakfast, and it seems to me, as I remember it now, to have been about the best breakfast that I have ever eaten. My work pleased the captain so well that he told me if I desired I could continue working for a small amount per day. This I was very glad to do. I continued working on this vessel for a number of days. After buying food with the small wages I received there was not much left to add to the amount I must get to pay my way to Hampton. In order to economize in every way possible, so as to be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable time, I continued to sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter the first night I was in Richmond. Many years after that the coloured citizens of Richmond very kindly tendered me a reception at which there must have been two thousand people present. This reception was held not far from the spot where I slept the first night I spent in that city, and I must confess that my mind was more upon the sidewalk that first gave me shelter than upon the reception, agreeable and cordial as it was. When I had saved what I considered enough money with which to reach Hampton, I thanked the captain of the vessel for his kindness, and started again. Without any unusual occurrence I reached Hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. ... 

“As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, I presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I felt that I could hardly blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or tramp. For some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favour, and I continued to linger about her, and to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I could only get a chance to show what was in me. After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: ‘The adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it.’ It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her. I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and I dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench, table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth. Besides, every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head teacher. She was a ‘Yankee; woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, ‘I guess you will do to enter this institution’” (Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery).

The Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, was one of the first educational institutions established for black freedmen after the Civil War. It was founded in 1868 by the American Missionary Association, a biracial association composed largely of Congregational and Presbyterian ministers. The first AMA missionary teacher was Mary Peake, who had been teaching slaves in Virginia clandestinely since the 1850s in spite of the state’s prohibition. Hampton was the location of the Grand Contraband Camp which was built under the protection of the Union Army as a refuge for slaves who escaped their masters. The Union army refused to return them, defining them as “contraband of war.” In 1863, all slaves in the South were liberated by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was read under an oak tree in Hampton which was called the Emancipation Oak. 

The school’s first leader was Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893), a former Union General. He was born in the Sandwich Islands (which later became the U.S. state of Hawaii) to missionaries Richard and Clarissa Armstrong. Richard established schools for the native Polynesians that emphasized learning a trade in addition to basic education. Hampton Institute focused on producing teachers and skilled laborers. All students were required to work in the school’s farms and trade shops for two days per week. “At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour’s own sake and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants done brings” (Booker T. Washington). 

There was a heavy emphasis on Christian morality and personal discipline (honesty, chastity, orderliness, neatness, cleanliness, punctuality, time management). All of the students had classes in the Bible. Booker T. Washington said, “Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year was an understanding of the Bible. ... Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which it gives, but on account of it as literature.” Hampton had the first program for educating black librarians. Most of the graduates became teachers. In 1888, an estimated 15,000 children were being taught by Hampton’s alumni (Robert Lamb, Our Twin Cities of the Nineteenth Century: Norfolk and Portsmouth). 

Hampton Institute under Armstrong promoted racial harmony and brotherly love. “In all my acquaintance with General Armstrong I never heard him speak, in public or in private, a single bitter word against the white man in the South. From his example in this respect I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. ... It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Armstrong, and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God’s help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race. I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a member of my own race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice” (Up from Slavery). 

Booker T. Washington rose to prominence among blacks in his day, so much so that the era 1880-1915 has been called “The Age of Booker T. Washington.” He met presidents and his causes were supported by some of the wealthiest men in America. 

In the long run, black people in America would have been better off had they followed the principles of Booker T. Washington rather than the “ever victim, give me everything, burn it down, philandering is ok, abortion is nothing” philosophy of prominent leaders who have followed.

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The previous study is excerpted from our new book History of Blacks in America and Their Baptist Churches. See the free eBooks filter button at the Books section of www.wayoflife.org.

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