Education has always been an important piece in my family’s legacy. My grandmother was one of the first African American women to have a school named after her, and the majority of my uncles, aunts, and cousins all work within the education field. Naturally, I decided to write about two influential educators that have greatly impacted my life.
Within the last couple of centuries, there have been a great number of influential leaders in the education field, but one that always stood out to me and impacted me the most is Booker T. Washington.
Booker T. Washington is arguably the most famous African American Education Activist for his multiple contributions to giving African Americans the equal education rights in the United States as white
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people. He founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, or better known as Tuskegee University. Despite the racial inequality and segregation during his time, Booker T. Washington wanted to ensure that his fellow African American citizens were not only received a quality education, he also wanted to make sure that the black people of America were being taught the necessary skills that are critical in the process of becoming a successful in the world of work. His philosophy of industrial education heavily stressed how much he felt African Americans needed to receive a proper education so they can strive in areas of social, political, and economic working environments. He felt a lack of education rendered people trapped and in a state no better than slavery. The only way for people to truly be set free is if they were educated so they can have better opportunities to pursue their dreams and make those dreams reality. In 1895, Booker T. Washington was invited to give a speech discussing the issue of educating black people in America, specifically the south. He then became the spokesperson of African Americans and helped Southerners realize that black citizens could and should have the opportunity to become self sufficient by having their own schools and owning their own businesses. Without his contributions the African American community would not have the opportunities that we have today. Three leadership theories/approaches that we have discussed in class that I have noticed from reading biographies about Booker T. Washington are the Situational Approach, Path Goal Theory, and Transformational Leadership. Regarding the Situational Leadership Approach, Booker T.
Washington uses a coaching style approach regarding his process of getting his fellow African Americans to enroll in schools and pursue a higher education. Washington embraces the path-goal theory supportive leader behavior perfectly by leading them down a path with the end goal being beneficial to all those who follow it. He motivates his followers by ensuring them that if they work hard and receive a proper education that they will be free from the chains of ignorance and stereotypes that black men and women are only good for manual labor. Although he received mixed reviews at first, people eventually listened and followed his philosophy and sought out higher education. This was very successful as the percentage of African Americans and other minority groups enrolling and graduating college is still increasing. The way Booker T. Washington used Transformational Leadership was by taking a stand and speaking up about the inequality African Americans were enduring regarding education and receiving fewer opportunities than white people. He did not know how far his speeches and philosophy would go, but he knew he had to try something to improve the situation for his people. Washington stated, “…I plead for industrial education and development for the Negro not because I want to cramp him, but because I want to free him.” With this quote we understand his vision as he challenges African Americans to get their education …show more content…
and pursue industrial careers. When he gave his famous speech, The Atlanta Address, you could tell how passionate he was about his cause, and regardless of the outcome he knew that the voices of his peers needed to be heard. The leader that I interviewed is a woman I am proud to call my former teacher and mentor, Gloria Trevino. She is a graphic design teacher and the instructor of my high school’s Career and Technical Student Education (C.T.S.O.) Student Leadership Team. Gloria Trevino is a pillar in the Grand Prairie Independent School District. She has been the instructor of the Student Leadership Team for all three high schools in GPISD, the lead graphic designer for the entire school district, and has lead several students to the national leaderships competitions in SkillsUSA for seven years in a row; while also inspiring all her students to further their vocational educations to prepare them for the world of work. Throughout the seven years she has been a teacher at John A. Dubiski Career High School, she has encouraged multiple students to surpass the standard expectation that society has placed for them. She helped many of them receive jobs, internships, or find mentors in their respected careers, whether it be: graphic design, automotive (collision and repair), architecture, information technology, or audio/video production. She teaches students how to create industry quality resumes, cover letters, portfolios, and helps them with interview preparation. Trevino teaches her students real world skills that you cannot learn from a textbook, and helps prepare you for the real work force. As one of her former students and member of the Student Leadership Team, I can honestly say that I would not have had many of the wonderful opportunities that I had if it was not for her seeing my potential to be a great leader and help nurture and develop my leadership skills. Before becoming a member of the Student Leadership Team, I had a fear of public speaking. After receiving the motivation and coaching from Trevino, I was able to give a presentation and hold a conversation with Congressman Marc Veasey at the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Gloria Trevino uses the Situational Approach, Transformational Leadership theory, and Adaptive Leadership as her three main leadership techniques.
In the interview, I asked her what kind of relationship does she have with her students and she said that she puts them at the same level as here because she doesn’t like the idea one person being superior to someone else. She used a supporting leadership style by allowing her students to feel free to think outside of the box without any judgment while still knowing that she will be there to help if they need it. She also said that she adapts her leadership style depending on the student she is working with. She understands that some people need more help than others and ensures her students that she does not play favorites with any students. Trevino is a very team oriented leader and embraces problem solving skills in her teaching methods. She shows traits of the Transformational Leader by always reassuring her Student Leadership Team that she is not her for the paycheck. Instead, she is here to make sure that every student is prepared for life after high school. Whenever she talks to her students, you can tell that she is passionate and truly cares about each and every one of their personal well beings inside and outside of school.
After completing my interview with Gloria Trevino, I noticed that she and Booker T. Washington had similar leadership styles and beliefs. Like Booker T. Washington, Trevino encourages people of all ages
to pursue a degree in higher education to better themselves, and to go against negative stereotypes. I realized that they have the same passion to see people succeed in their career goals and in their personal lives, which is something all members of the educational field should do.
and challenges to African Americans from 1910 until about 1930. Du Bois felt that Americans
Although W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T Washington were very different, they undoubtedly influenced the Black population of the United States. Du Bois, although supported communism, excellent in a utopian society yet devastating in reality, had his people's interest at heart. Booker T Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, did help some Black population's problems, yet he was more interested with the White culture and its ideals.
Booker T. Washington was an African American leader who established an African-American college in 1181. Then in 1895 delivered the Atlanta Compromise Speech to an audience of mainly Southerners, but some Northerners were present. In his speech he made a few points. He said, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Washington believed that the African American race needed to learn first that manual labor was just as important as the work of intellects. He thought that until they learned this they were not worthy of becoming intellects themselves. The color line is thus important in teaching them this lesson. He also said, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.” His opinion was that one day blacks would deserve to have equal rights with the whites, but right now in 1895 the blacks needed to be...
Another reason why some people believe that Mr. Washington should not have pursued helping others to get an education by building a school because he was a black man and no one would want to help fund for school roughed by a black man. This would happen to anyone, but Mr. Washington was well known in society as being an honest and trustworthy man with
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were both pioneers in striving to obtain equality for blacks, yet their ways of achieving this equality were completely different. W.E.B. Du Bois is the more celebrated figure today since he had the better method because it didn’t give the whites any power, and his method was intended to achieve a more noble goal than Washington’s. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. Like many slaves at that time, historians are not sure of the exact place or date of his birth (Washington, Up From Slavery 7). Washington had absolutely no schooling while he was a slave; he received all his education after he was set free.... ...
...to be equally educated. His speeches not only attracted the black people but also, northern and southern white people. Booker worked hard for all that he achieved during his life time. People all over were followers of Booker T. Washington. One example of how much these followers appreciated Washington is through raising money for a trip to Europe. Not just anyone went to Europe in those days. The trip showed how much the people appreciated Booker’s efforts for civil rights and education of blacks. They sent
Booker T. Washington was born on the fifth of April in 1856, in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. Washington’s generation was the last to be born into slavery. He was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. This gentlemen attended Hampton University and Virginia Union University. During that time Washington became famous nationally with a speech he gave in 1895 in Atlanta. His speech consisted of how African- Americans would be able to make progress in the South. Washington believed that progress could be made through entrepreneurship and education, he also believed that Jim Crow segregation and that black’s not being able to vote should not be challenge at that point and time. Overall Booker T. Washington supported segregation during this point in time because, he knew that soon enough blacks would be treated better.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more aggressive strategy. He studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and the University of Berlin before he went on to study at Harvard. He then took a low paying research job at the University of Pennsylvania, using a new discipline of sociology which emphasized factual observation in the field to study the condition of blacks. The first study of the effect of urban life on blacks, it cited a wealth of statistics, all suggesting that crime in the ward stemmed not from inborn degeneracy but from the environment in which blacks lived. Change the environment, and people would change too; education was a good way to go about it. The different strategies offered by W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington in dealing with the problems of poverty and discrimination faced by Black Americans were education, developing economic skills, and insisting on things continually such as the right to vote. ...
In 1903 black leader and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois wrote an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others.” Both Washington and Du Bois were leaders of the black community in the 19th and 20th century, even though they both wanted to see the same outcome for black Americans, they disagreed on strategies to help achieve black social and economic progress. History shows that W.E.B Du Bois was correct in racial equality would only be achieved through politics and higher education of the African American youth.
...on't. There were slackers during Booker's time and there are slackers now. I want and I am going to get my education. I want to be able to be like Booker and be able to look back on my life and said that I really did something with it. Washington has proven that anyone can do it. Even if your a slave and can get no poorer. All you have to do is believe in yourself because anything and everything is possible!
Booker T. Washington’s statement in Up from Slavery, stated that “Education is not a thing apart from life-not a “system”, nor a philosophy: it is direct teaching how to live and how to work…” He was a black activist and educator, who taught newly freedman the importance of sanitation and disease prevention, urged equality through education and agriculture pursuit, and encouraged positive relationships between races. Some obstacles were minor, causing short-term inconvenience and aggravation. Washington explained how he overcame obstacles and unbelievable odds. In his autobiography, Washington describes his life as a slave and rising from poverty and oppression. Booker T. Washington is one of African American great leaders of the late 19th
Dubois provides more details on the whole idea behind the thinking of this scholar and his vision for his people. Per this document, Washington’s speech seems to have shocked the nation to hear a Negro man encouraging his community to work together with the whites with goals of financial security. A first, many Negros struggled with supporting Booker’s vision of the black community not focusing on racial equality but working to gain financial freedoms but eventually it won “the admiration of the North and silenced the Negroes themselves.” Race relations amongst the blacks and whites were filled with a lot of tension which was all related to the little rights afforded to the blacks and the racial inequalities/injustices faced by blacks in
Booker T. Washington was one of the most well-known African American educators of all time. Lessons from his life recordings and novelistic writings are still being talked and learned about today. His ideas of the accommodation of the Negro people and the instillation of a good work ethic into every student are opposed, though, by some well-known critics of both past and current times. They state their cases by claiming the Negro’s should not have stayed quiet and worked their way to wear they did, they should have demanded equal treatment from the southern whites and claimed what was previously promised to them. Also, they state that Washington did not really care about equality or respect, but about a status boost in his own life. Both arguments presented by Washington and his critics are equally valid when looked at in context, but When Mr. Booker gave his speech at the Atlanta Acquisition, he was more-so correct in his belief of accommodation. His opinions concerning that hard work achieved success and respect and that demanding requests does not give immediate results were more rational, practical, and realistic than others outcries of immediate gratification and popularity contests.
On a surface level, Booker T Washington indeed did make progress for African Americans. We cannot fault him for his great strides in educating an almost completely uneducated race. Washington claims that there were over six thousand men and women from Tuskegee alone that were working all over the South at the time of the books publish (202). The success of these students was due in great part to the realistic outlook of Booker T Washington. By insisting that each and every student perform manual labor, he prepared them for life much more thoroughly than could ever be accomplished in the classroom alone (135). By becoming a skilled in tasks manual labor, Washington believed you were perfectly in line for a comfortable life. In his words, "any man, regardless of colour, will be recognized and rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well" (181). As an educational role model, Booker T Washington was a tremendous success.
The presentations presented to the Administrative Board ranged from Lincoln Steffens to Alexander Berkman. I have chosen four astounding candidates who are perfect for our University: Booker T. Washington, William Jennings Bryan, Robert La Follete, and Eugene Debs. These are some of the most powerful, and influential people during the progressive era. They made their mark in our history; they helped protect the lives of Americans; they each took our country to the next level. These luminaries define true Progressives.