Washington’s popular 1901 autobiography, Up From Slavery, then became a central text for his conservative philosophy for racial uplift. By the late 1890s, he was becoming well known as a public speaker. Despite living during a period of intense southern backlash and violence against freed blacks, Washington argued that the best way to win white acceptance was through hard work and black self-reliance. Washington later taught at Hampton and then became founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a vocational school for African Americans. At age sixteen, Washington left home to attend the Hampton Institute on the Virginia peninsula, arriving practically penniless, after a journey of nearly 500 miles. Following the Civil War, Washington’s family relocated to West Virginia, where he attended school and worked in a variety of jobs, including at the local coal mines. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia, where he grew up until the age of nine, when Union troops brought emancipation to his plantation.
Washington (1856-1915) was a noted African American educator who became famous for his leadership on race relations. INTRODUCTION Washington in 1903 (Library of Congress)īooker T. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper-the Emancipation Proclamation, I think.
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