TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE

"In Industry the Foundation Must Be Laid"

In his famous Atlanta Address of 1895, Booker T. Washington set forth the motivating spirit behind Tuskegee Institute. In a post Reconstruction era marked by growing segregation and disfranchisement of blacks, this spirit was based on what realistically might be achieved in that time and place. "The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now," he observed, "is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house." Because of Washington's extraordinary ability to work within the system and to maximize the possible, Tuskegee flourished to the extent only dreamed about when he met his first students on July 4, 1881.

The school's beginnings were indeed inauspicious. At the urging of Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a former slave owner, the State of Alabama had provided $2,000 for teachers' salaries but nothing for land, buildings, or equipment. Classes began in a dilapidated church and shanty. Although the 30 students in the first class may not have known what to expect from the new school, Principal Washington knew exactly what he intended to do. Guided by the model of Hampton Institute, Washington set three objectives for Tuskegee. Students in the first class already had some education and showed potential as teachers. Throughout the school's history, many graduates became educators. Washington urged these teachers "to return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people." A rural extension program took progressive ideas and training to many who could not attend classes on the campus. Smaller schools and colleges founded and taught by Tuskegee alumni sprang up throughout the South, and teacher training remained a primary objective of their alma mater.

A second and perhaps more famous objective was to develop craft and occupational skills to equip students for jobs in the trades and agriculture. The needs of the school provided a ready laboratory for instruction. Buildings were needed, so the students made and laid bricks. Hungry students ate the products of the school's farm, acquiring in the process a knowledge of progressive agricultural methods. Thus they learned by doing while earning compensation toward tuition. Even in traditional academic courses, practical problems were interwoven at every opportunity. "In industry the foundation must be laid," Washington explained. Industrial education was to be the basis on which "habits of thrift, a love of work, ownership of property, [and] bank accounts," would grow.

As a third objective, Washington hoped to make Tuskegee what he called a "civilizing agent." Education was to be total; certainly it would occur in the classroom and workshop, but also it would take place in the dining hall and dormitories. Washington insisted on high moral character and absolute cleanliness for both student and faculty. Dormitory rooms and table manners were critically scrutinized. Washington himself kept close watch over the appearance of Tuskegee's buildings, grounds, students, and faculty. "I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it...or a button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or on a floor that I do not want to call attention to it," confessed Washington. To enable the Institute to undertake a program of total instruction, the school moved in 1882 to 100 acres of abandoned farmland, purchased with a $200 personal loan from the treasurer of Hampton.

Tuskegee prospered as it did in part because Washington won widespread support in both the North and South. He traveled extensively and spoke convincingly, making the Institute known and respected among people of wealth and influence. The first building erected on the campus, Porter Hall, was named for the Brooklyn donor of $500. Andrew Carnegie, Collis P. Huntington, and John D. Rockefeller were among the benefactors whose names appeared on major campus buildings. By the time of Washington's death in 1915, Tuskegee had become an internationally famous institution. The main campus has since grown to include 161 buildings on 268 acres and an academic community of nearly 5,000 students, faculty, and staff.

The success of Tuskegee has not always been greeted with acclaim. Many felt that vocational training for blacks would tend to keep them in a subordinate role. Instead, greater emphasis on traditional higher education was advocated, notably by W.E.B. Du Bois. While each side in this debate recognized the need for both kinds of education, the concern was with the disproportionate emphasis on vocational training that Washington's approach and Tuskegee's popular success were fostering. Growing racial discrimination heightened the urgency of the debate. Although Washington combated racial justice behind the scenes, his critics knew little or nothing of his activity and criticized what they saw as inaction.

In the decades after Washington's death, Tuskegee moved into a new era. The controversy over educational philosophy diminished as a more balanced approach arose. Washington's successor Robert Russa Moton led Tuskegee into a college degree-granting program with the establishment of the College Department in 1927.

The struggles and triumphs of those early years, the support and attention that was garnered for Tuskegee, its survival and growth, combine into a fascinating, spirited saga. History will always grant a special significance to the name Tuskegee Institute.

Tuskegee Institute National Historical Site

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George Washington Carver

"My very soul thirsted for an education. I literally lived in the woods. I wanted to know every strange stone, flower, insect, bird, or beast."

Born a slave of Moses and Susan Carver, probably during the Civil War, George Washington Carver had a burning desire for education that was fed by a strong natural curiosity. In childhood his health was poor, and he was orphaned at an early age. Yet he worked his way through school and earned a master's degree in agriculture from Iowa Agricultural College, later Iowa State. Upon graduation, he joined the faculty at Iowa where he supervised research in botany and bacteriology. He was well on the way to a promising scientific career.

In 1896, however, Carver chose a much less certain future by accepting Booker T. Washington's invitation to come to Tuskegee Institute as head of the new Department of Agriculture. Here, for 47 years, Carver taught, wrote, and worked in his laboratory. His scientific ability, reinforced by his love of nature and God, his basic curiosity, and his desire to help his fellow man, led him to develop numerous uses for Southern agricultural products. His work brought fame and honor to Tuskegee Institute, and won him a reputation as an outstanding American scientist.

In 1938, the Institute honored Carver by establishing the George Washington Carver Museum on the campus. Here Carver, who was also talented in the arts, found a home for his paintings and needlework, his vegetable specimens, and his samples of products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes, sand, and feathers, to name a few. The museum was dedicated on March 11, 1941, at a ceremony attended by Henry Ford, who came to pay tribute to the aging professor-scientist. Carver lived at Tuskegee until his death on January 5, 1943. His legacy lives on in the museum and in the Carver Research Foundation which was begun with a bequest from Carver himself.

George Washington Carver National Monument

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