RSS
Home
Tuskegee University opened in 1881
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
History class at Tuskegee Institue in 1902. (Photo by
Frances Benjamin Johnson)
July 4, 1881: The Tuskegee Institute opens. Today called Tuskegee University, the school was a dream turned to reality for 39-year-old Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a former slave holder. Adams had no formal education although he was a multilingual tinsmith, harness maker, and cobbler. He was also a Prime Hill Freemason and leader of the black community of Macon County, Alabama. Adams was aware of the limited employment opportunities available to uneducated, illiterate freed slaves.
Campbell, a merchant and banker, volunteered to back Adams. W.F. Foster, running for the Alabama Senate, needed the support of the newly enfranchised black males. Adams would throw his considerable support Foster's way if he would be given the opportunity to open a normal school as teacher's colleges were called at the time. All this came to pass, but the school still needed a leader. They looked around and found a 25-year-old freed slave who had recently graduated form Hampton Institute in Virginia. Booker T. Washington was brought on board.
Washington was more than happy to train teachers. However, he felt learning practical skills was equally important. His students, therefore, took part in agricultural and domestic work and even participated in the construction of buildings. Washington became a great orator and spokesman for the emerging African-American subculture. One of Tuskegee's early professors was the equally famous George Washington Carver.
Today, Tuskegee is organized into 5 Colleges offering 54 degrees including 38 Bachelor's, 13 Master's, 2 PhD's and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. They are coeducational with a racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse student body. They have more than 3,000 students enrolled with about 900 faculty and support personnel. The physical plant included more than 5,000 acres of forests along with the campus which houses more than 100 major buildings. The value of the real estate is more than $500 million.
"A lot of people today look at Booker T. Washington as a Uncle Tom as a sell out to his community. That business tradition that you see celebrated today and BET and any number of successful black enterprises, it starts off with Booker T. Washington." - Ed Smith
"Booker T. Washington once said that education is the sole and only hope of the negro race in America. That's what we're celebrating today - hope." - Dwayne Ashley
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life... as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington
"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts." - Booker T. Washington
More information on Booker T. Washington.
George Washington Carver's legacy.
History of Tuskegee University.
Related Articles:
Comments
