愛薇塔樂學英文

98 Booker T. Washington98 布克·T·華盛頓As an educator and a champion of self-help, he tried to lea

98 Booker T. Washington
98 布克·T·華盛頓

As an educator and a champion of self-help, he tried to lead black America up from slavery.
他是教師，作為自助的宣導者，他努力引領黑人掙脫奴役。

Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American political leader, educator, orator and author. He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. Representing the last generation of black leaders born in slavery, and speaking for those blacks who had remained in the New South in an uneasy modus vivendi with the white Southerners, Washington was able throughout the final 25 years of his life to maintain his standing as the black leader because of the sponsorship of powerful whites, substantial support within the black community, his ability to raise educational funds from both groups and his skillful accommodation to the social realities of the age of segregation.

Washington was born into slavery to a white father and a slave mother in a rural area in southwestern Virginia. After emancipation, he worked in West Virginia in a variety of manual labor jobs before making his way to Hampton Roads seeking an education. He worked his way through Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) and attended college at Wayland Seminary. After returning to Hampton as a teacher, in 1881 he was named as the first leader of the new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Washington received national prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895, attracting the attention of politicians and the public as a popular spokesperson for African American citizens. Washington built a nationwide network of supporters in many black communities, with black ministers, educators and businessmen composing his core supporters. Washington played a dominant role in black politics, winning wide support in the black community and among more liberal whites (especially rich Northern whites). He gained access to top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education. Washington's efforts included cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists, which helped raise funds to establish and operate thousands of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of blacks throughout the South, work which continued for many years after his death.

Northern critics called Dr. Washington's followers the "Tuskegee Machine". After 1909, Washington was criticized by the leaders of the new NAACP, especially W. E. B. Du Bois, who demanded a harder line on civil rights protests. Washington replied that confrontation would lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks, and that cooperation with supportive whites was the only way to overcome pervasive racism in the long run. Some of his civil rights work was secret, such as funding court cases.

In addition to the substantial contributions in the field of education, Dr. Washington was the author of 14 books; his autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely read today. During a difficult period of transition for the United States, he did much to improve the overall friendship and working relationship between the races. His work greatly helped lay the foundation for the increased access of blacks to higher education, financial power, and understanding of the U.S. legal system led to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and adoption of important federal civil rights laws.

Career overview

Washington was born into slavery to Jane, an enslaved African American woman on the Burroughs Plantation in southwest Virginia. He knew little about his white father. His family gained freedom in 1865 as the Civil War ended. As a boy he invented the surname Washington when all the other school children were giving their full names. After working in salt furnaces and coal mines in West Virginia for several years, Washington made his way east to Hampton Institute, established to educate freedmen. There, he worked his way through his studies and later attended Wayland Seminary to complete preparation as an instructor. In 1881, Hampton president Samuel C. Armstrong recommended Washington to become the first leader of Tuskegee Institute, the new normal school (teachers' college) in Alabama. He headed it for the rest of his life.

Washington was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915, especially after his Atlanta Address of 1895. To many politicians and the public in general, he was seen as a popular spokesman for African-American citizens. Representing the last generation of black leaders born into slavery, Washington was generally perceived as a credible proponent of education for freedmen in the post-Reconstruction, Jim Crow South. Throughout the final 20 years of his life, he maintained his standing through a nationwide network of supporters–including black educators, ministers, editors, and businessmen–especially those who were liberal-leaning on social and educational issues. Critics called his network of supporters the "Tuskegee Machine". He gained access to top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education, raised large sums, was consulted on race issues and was awarded honorary degrees from leading American universities.

Late in his career, Washington was criticized by leaders of the NAACP, which was formed in 1909. W. E. B. Du Bois suggested activism to achieve civil rights. He labeled Washington "the Great Accommodator". Washington's response was that confrontation could lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks. He believed that cooperation with supportive whites was the only way in the long run to overcome racism.

Washington contributed secretly and substantially to legal challenges of segregation and disfranchisement of blacks. In his public role, he believed he could achieve more by skillful accommodation to the social realities of the age of segregation.

Washington's work on education issues helped him enlist both the moral and substantial financial support of many major white philanthropists. He became friends with such self-made men as Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers; Sears, Roebuck and Company President Julius Rosenwald; and George Eastman, inventor and founder of Kodak. These individuals and many other wealthy men and women funded his causes, including Hampton and Tuskegee institutes.

The schools were founded to produce teachers. However, graduates had often gone back to their local communities only to find precious few schools and educational resources to work with in the largely impoverished South. To address those needs, Washington enlisted his philanthropic network in matching funds programs to stimulate construction of numerous rural public schools for black children in the South. Together, these efforts eventually established and operated over 5,000 schools and supporting resources for the betterment of blacks throughout the South in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The local schools were a source of communal pride and were priceless to African-American families when poverty and segregation limited severely the life chances of the pupils. A major part of Washington's legacy, the number of model rural schools increased with matching funds from the Rosenwald Fund into the 1930s.

His autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely read today.

 

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中文簡介:

布克•華盛頓（Booker Taliaferro Washington，1856年4月5日－1915年11月14日）是美國政治家、教育家和作家。他是1890年到1915年之間美國黑人歷史上的重要人物之一。

華盛頓出生于維吉尼亞州佛蘭克林縣，其父親是白人奴隸主，母親是黑奴。他在體力勞動工作學會讀和寫。在十六歲時，他來到維吉尼亞漢普頓的師範和農業學院（現在的漢普頓大學）接受教師培訓。1881年創辦第一所黑人師範學校－塔斯基吉師範學校（Tuskegee University），並成為該校校長，華盛頓成功地使之成為著名的學校。。在1896年和1901年，他分別獲哈佛大學和達特茅斯學院授予的名譽文學碩士學位和名譽博士學位。

華盛頓在黑人政治中扮演了一個非常突出的角色。1895年，華盛頓發表了著名的亞特蘭大演說，這使他聞名全國，受到政界和公眾的關注，成為美國黑人的代言人。他和白人合作，幫助籌款創建數百個社區學校和高等教育機構，以提高美國南方黑人的教育水準。除了在教育領域貢獻卓著之外，華盛頓博士還大力促進美國各種族之間的整體友誼和工作關係。1900年華盛頓創立了「全國黑人企業同盟」（NNBL），他的著名著作《出身奴隸》（Up from Slavery）於1901年首度出版，至今仍然廣為流傳。華盛頓是第一位被美國總統羅斯福（Theodore Roosevelt, 1858~1919）邀請進入白宮討論種族問題的黑人。1915年華盛頓由於勞累過度逝世於醫院，享年69歲。