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Today in American History
On this day in history — July 4, 1881 — Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, known today as Tuskegee University, in Tuskegee, Alabama, held its first day of class.
Booker T. Washington served as the school’s founding principal and presided over the first day of class– which, due to significant lack of resources, was held in a one-room church. The first official building on campus was erected by Washington and the students themselves, one year later.
Washington, recounting the event in his autobiography Up From Slavery said,
On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported for admission. I was the only teacher.
The students were about equally divided between the sexes… A great many more students wanted to enter the school, but it had been decided to receive only those who were above fifteen years of age, and who had previously received some education. The greater part of the thirty were public-school teachers, and some of them were nearly forty years of age. With the teachers came some of their former pupils, and when they were examined it was amusing to note that in several cases the pupil entered a higher class than did his former teacher…
The students were making progress in learning books and in development their minds; but it became apparent at once that, if we were to make any permanent impression upon those who had come to us for training we must do something besides teach them mere books. The students had come from homes where they had had no opportunities for lessons which would teach them how to care for their bodies. With few exceptions, the homes in Tuskegee in which the students boarded were but little improvement upon those from which they had come. We wanted to teach the students how to bathe; how to care for their teeth and clothing. We wanted to teach them what to eat, and how to eat it properly, and how to care for their rooms.
Aside from this, we wanted to give them such a practical knowledge of some one industry, together with the spirit of industry, thrift, and economy, that they would be sure of knowing how to make a living after they had left us. We wanted to teach them to study actual things instead of mere books alone…
It’s truly remarkable that Washington and the increasing number of students that continued to enroll at Tuskegee built the school from the ground up.
As it happens, I recently presented a course on Booker T. Washington for PragerU. It’s my small part in trying to restore Booker T. Washington’s name and legacy among the pantheon of notable blacks in American history.
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Published in History
For me, Washington was one of the long tradition of American heroes, heroes of the sacred cause of liberalism. Thanks for this little history lesson about him.
Great post, Derryck.
Also on this date, 1863: Vicksburg fell to Grant’s siege. Grant was then promoted to supreme command, going on to crush the Confederacy.
Yesterday, 1863: Hancock’s boys in blue held, and Pickett’s charge failed. It was the high water mark of the Confederacy. Lee had not really lost a battle before*. He did not win a battle after.
* I know, Antietam, but that was mostly a draw. Because McClellan.
Not until the siege of Chattanooga was lifted and Bragg was kicked out of Tennessee by the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He took over in March, 1864. Halleck was appointed Chief of Staff, which allowed him to focus on his forte, logistics, and kept him out of everybody’s way.
I liked the video, although perhaps what struck me most was the part about education.
* College students required to learn a useful trade. Elitist college professors and administrators can’t have that.
* College students helping with the construction of the university. That’s not going to happen even though building construction and home repair is one of the most useful skills that anyone could learn.
* Students learning in poorly-kept buildings or, gasp, churches. We can’t have that. It reminds me of all the beautiful Christian cathedrals in Europe and elsewhere that sit vacant while simple metal barn-type buildings converted to churches are packed in rural America.
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I think one of Thomas Sowell’s books mentioned that immediately after the Civil War that many white Christian evangelicals decided to travel or move to the South to educate former slaves. I think he mentioned that about 75% of them were from New England. I don’t think of New England as being a evangelical Christian location, but I guess 150 years ago things were quite different. Today the four least-religious states are the four most northern New England states — Vermont 56.3 %, Maine 51.1 %, New Hampshire 49.2 %, and Massachusetts 46.0 %.
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Erect more statues to Booker T. Washington.
We need Booker T. Washington to build another college. This time, for Americans of all races who want to learn how to be more useful and ethical.
Respectfully to Mr. Green, I would have preferred a passing mention of how Booker T. Washington was a Christian man and how his Christianity made him want to be decent and to encourage the world to be more decent. Part of what made him great was his Christian decency.
Hey Derryck, I notice a resemblance between you and photographs of a younger Booker T. Washington. Is that a coincidence?
I thought the exact same thing!
Booker T. was the man.
Loved the video, especially as The Gaijin says above the details about his educational philosophy: “practical education”. There are so many Americans of all races in desperate need of such education, not only learning trades (although that’s important and useful), but the basics of being functional adult citizens.
Thanks, Derryck.
Grant began the siege after failing to take the city by storm, on May 22. He later regretted that last attack as the casualties were heavy. My great great uncle, William J Kennedy, was wounded in that May 22 attack in the elbow. He wrote his wife that he was wounded but it was not that serious. He would be moved to Memphis, where the hospital was, after the most seriously wounded. They had to be taken at night past the fortifications of Vicksburg. He died on June 2 in Memphis.
I wonder if this statue of BTW on Tuskegee’s campus is safe.
Apparently no statues are safe anymore. Abolitionist statues are being torn down. Even Martin Luther King is being “excommunicated” in some circles because he supported Israel. It’s just anarchy with no real higher goals than to just “trash everything.”
It may be a coincidence for sure… but thank you for the compliment!
The higher goal is to induce a mood of futility and despond against the anarchy. Where governments sideline police, the anarchists will start to encounter things far scarier than themselves.