Booker T. Washington, author, educator, Republican.
On April 5th, 2014 rallies against Common Core will be staged across Florida and America organized by Eye On US Education (E– — — USE). The rallies will be under the banner “War on Common Core.” This date was chosen because it is the birthdate of Booker T. Washington. According to the Booker T. Washington Society there are forty-five schools across America named after him. Schools in Florida named after Booker T. Washington are located in Miami and Pensacola.
Booker T. Washington was a Black educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Blacks were solidly Republican in this period, having gained emancipation and suffrage with their support.
Washington was on close terms with national Republican Party leaders, and often was asked for political advice by presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Washington, as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, was the first Black ever invited to the White House.
Washington’s long-term goal was to build the community’s economic strength and pride by focusing on self-help and schooling. He believed that education, black owned businesses, and hard work were the keys to success.
Washington raised funds to establish and operate thousands of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of blacks throughout the South. The schools which Washington supported were founded primarily to produce teachers – as literacy and education are the keys to their future.
Quotes:
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.
If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.
EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is of Booker T. Washington holding a Carnegie Hall audience spellbound during his Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary lecture, in 1906.
About the author /Sheri Krass
Eye On US Education (E– — — USE) is an “outgrowth” of the Florida Textbook Action Network (TAN). The TAN was formed when concerned citizens researched Florida’s Dept. of Education (FDOE) approved Social Studies textbooks and discovered that they provided faulty and slanted information, anti-Judeo/Christian bias, and various other discrepancies.
