Everybody is looking out for themselves, there's money to be made and they're relying on grants and grant making. I'm a freelance grant writer so I understand the game. But at the same time, because federal dollars are pouring in and have been, can we even really trust these black figureheads in white institutions? Black figureheads that are only there to basically grant fund? Look at the Commission they created that tried to look at all of the faults and try to bring charges against those involved in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, they had how many black folks in it? Black men? That was working for the federal government that basically carried out that study?
If we're going to create organizations that rely on funding then we must rely on ourselves and write those checks and make those donations, so we know who to hold accountable when shyt happens and take care of ourselves.
Tuskegee Institute by Booker T Washington for instance.
Lets get another 5-10 of those. Basically if Umar Johnson was someone notable among black people, hes on the right path in terms of funding. To bad hes not notable
History[edit]
Planning and establishment[edit]
History class at Tuskegee, 1902
The school was founded on July 4, 1881, as the Tuskegee
Normal School for Colored Teachers. It was part of the expansion of higher education for
blacks in the former
Confederate states following the
American Civil War, with many schools founded by the northern
American Missionary Association. A teachers' school was the dream of
Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a banker, merchant, and former slaveholder, who shared a commitment to the education of blacks. Despite lacking formal education, Adams could read, write, and speak several languages. He was an experienced
tinsmith, harness-maker, and
shoemaker and was a
Prince Hall Freemason, an acknowledged leader of the
African-American community in
Macon County, Alabama.
Adams and Campbell had secured $2,000 from the State of Alabama for teachers' salaries but nothing for land, buildings, or equipment. Adams, Campbell (replacing Thomas Dryer, who died after his appointment), and M. B. Swanson formed Tuskegee's first board of commissioners. Campbell wrote to the
Hampton Institute, a
historically black college in
Virginia, requesting the recommendation of a teacher for their new school.
Samuel C. Armstrong, the Hampton
principal and a former
Union general, recommended 25-year-old
Booker T. Washington, an alumnus and teacher at Hampton.
As the newly hired
principal in Tuskegee, Booker Washington began classes for his new school in a rundown church and shanty. The following year (1882), he purchased a former
plantation of 100 acres in size. The earliest campus buildings were constructed on that property, usually by students as part of their work-study. By the start of the 20th century, the Tuskegee Institute occupied nearly 2,300 acres.
[5]
Based on his experience at the
Hampton Institute, Washington intended to train students in skills, morals, and religious life, in addition to academic subjects. Washington urged the teachers he trained "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."
[6] Washington's second wife
Olivia A. Davidson, was instrumental to the success and helped raise funds for the school/
[7]
Gradually, a rural extension program was developed, to take progressive ideas and training to those who could not come to the campus. Tuskegee alumni founded smaller schools and colleges throughout the
South; they continued to emphasize teacher training.
Booker T. Washington's leadership[edit]
The Oaks,
Booker T. Washington's home on the Tuskegee campus, c. 1906
Presidents of Tuskegee University
Dr. Booker T. Washington 1881–1915
Dr. Robert Moton 1915–1935
Dr. Frederick Patterson 1935–1953
Dr. Luther Foster, Jr. 1953–1981
Dr. Benjamin Payton 1981–2010
Dr. Charlotte P. Morris 2010 Interim President – November 1, 2010
Dr. Gilbert L. Rochon 2010 – 2013
Dr. Matthew Jenkins 2013 Acting President – June 15, 2014
Dr. Brian L. Johnson 2014 – present
As a young free man after the Civil War, Washington sought a formal education. He worked his way through Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) and attended college at
Wayland Seminary in Washington, DC (now Virginia Union University). He returned to Hampton as a teacher.
Hired as principal of the new
normal school (for the training of teachers) in
Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker Washington opened his school on July 4, 1881, in space borrowed from a church. The following year, he bought the grounds of a former
plantation. Over the decades he expanded the institute there; It has been designated as a
National Historic Landmark.
The school expressed Washington's dedication to the pursuit of self-reliance. In addition to training teachers, he also taught the practical skills needed for his students to succeed at farming or other trades typical of the rural South, where most of them came from. He wanted his students to see labor as practical, but also as beautiful and dignified. As part of their work-study programs, students constructed most of the new buildings. Many students earned all or part of their expenses through the construction, agricultural, and domestic work associated with the campus, as they reared livestock and raised crops, as well as producing other goods.
The continuing expansion of black education took place against a background of increased violence against blacks in the South, after white Democrats regained power in state governments and imposed white supremacy in society. They instituted legal
racial segregation and a variety of
Jim Crow laws, after
disfranchising most blacks by constitutional amendments and electoral rules from 1890–1964. Against this background, Washington's vision, as expressed in his "
Atlanta compromise" speech, became controversial and was challenged by new leaders, such as
W.E.B. Du Bois, who argued that blacks should have opportunities for study in
classical academic programs, as well as vocational institutes. In the early twentieth century, Du Bois envisioned the rise of "
the Talented Tenth" to lead African Americans.
Washington gradually attracted notable scholars to Tuskegee, including the botanist
George Washington Carver, one of the university's most renowned professors.
