|
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) taught us all the importance of education and public service in his autobiography, "Up From Slavery." It is an absolute must-read for any high school and/or college prep student. Dedication, persistence and ultimately realizing a life driven by goals greater than himself is a lesson we should all learn to emulate, young and old. No one worked harder and achieved more with less in his time than Booker T. Washington. After reading, you'll have to ask yourself, "If I put my mind to it, what can I do?"
BOOK ONE: "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington
(January 1-7)
Preface
Chapter 1: A Slave Among Slaves
Chapter 2: Boyhood Days
Chapter 3: The Struggle For an Education
Chapter 4: Helping Others
Chapter 5: The Reconstruction Period
Chapter 6: Black Race and Red Race
Chapter 7: Early Days at Tuskegee
Chapter 8: Teaching School in a Stable and a Hen-House
Chapter 9: Anxious Days and Sleepless Nights
Chapter 10: A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw
Chapter 11: Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie on Them
Chapter 12: Raising Money
Chapter 13: Two Thousand Miles For a Five-Minute Speech
Chapter 14: The Atlanta Exposition Address
Chapter 15: The Secret of Success in Public Speaking
Chapter 16: Europe
Chapter 17: Last Words
If you have read this book, move onto Week #2's Book >> |
BRIEF BIOGRAPY:
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery. In a small cabin with a dirt floor, Booker watched his mother prepare the plantation's meals over an open fire. While Booker never met his father, he tells us that he was a white man from a nearby farm. In April 1865, Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" was read to the plantation's slaves, thereby freeing Booker, his mother and family. The family soon left the Virginian plantation to join his stepfather in Malden, West Virginia.
While Booker had hoped freedom would bring the most valuable thing in the world to him, an education. He soon was forced to take a job in the coal and salt mines of West Virginia, beginning at 4 a.m. After a 10-hour shift, he desperately sought to attend school later in the day, devising a number of schemes to make it possible. After years of toiling in a salt mine, Booker applied to become the houseboy of a wealthy towns-woman who further encouraged his desire to learn. After hearing of Hamilton Institute, he literally walked much of the 500 miles back to Virginia, sometimes sleeping under the city streets, to enroll in this new school for black students.
This concept of self-reliance born of hard work was the cornerstone of Washington's social philosophy.
As a man who overcame near-impossible odds himself, Booker T. Washington is best remembered for helping black Americans rise up from slavery. But, the lessons to be gleaned of this book transcend race. |
|
| |
|
