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In his deeply moving autobiography, "Up From Slavery," Booker T. Washington, who was born in 1856 to an enslaved family on a Virginia plantation, describes the first shred of education he acquired. He was 9 years old when the Civil War ended and, like every other enslaved child, had been deliberately kept illiterate and innumerate. With the arrival of freedom, Washington's family journeyed to West Virginia, where his stepfather arranged a job for him in a salt-furnace. It was there that his education began. "The first thing I ever learned in the way of book knowledge was while working in...

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Kent M. MacDonald.As longtime admirers of legendary civil rights pioneer and educational entrepreneur Booker T. Washington, we felt compelled to pay tribute to this profoundly influential American during Black History Month. Born into slavery on April 18, 1856 in Hale’s Ford, Virginia, Washington died a free man 59 years later on November 14, 1915 in Tuskegee, Alabama. From a young age, he understood the power of education. He worked hard and earned degrees from Hampton Normal, an agricultural institute (today Hampton University) and Wayland Seminary. Washington became recognized as a leading educator, author,...

On the third of his four voyages, Columbus sailed south along the west coast of Africa before heading west across the Atlantic Ocean . There he was caught in the "doldrums," a dangerous condition near the equator, called the "horse latitudes," where there is intense heat and no wind. The origin of the term "horse latitudes" came later, when ships sailing to the New World were stranded in the "doldrums" for weeks. As they baked in the sun, they ran out of fresh drinking water. Sailors reportedly pushed overboard the horses they were transporting as the ocean salt water they...

"Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?" - George Washington Carver George Washington Carver - His Life and Faith in His Own Words George Washington Carver was born a slave during the Civil War, possibly around the date of JULY 12, 1865, but there are no records. Within a few weeks, his father, who belonged to the next farm over, was killed in a log hauling accident. Shortly after the Civil War, while still an infant, bushwhackers from the Democrat South kidnapped George, along with his mother and sister. Moses Carver, a German immigrant, sent friends...

"""“Black National Anthem” to be Sung at NFL Games This Year — Was Written by Black Republican Who Denounced Democrats for Lynching Blacks""" James Weldon Johnson was an American civil rights activist, school principal and writer. According to Grand Ole Partisan, in 1900, he wrote the poem Lift Every Voice and Sing to honor Republican activist Booker T. Washington when the civil rights leader visited his school.

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Booker T Washington. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Booker T Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom half...

Rev. MLK, Jr. "I have a dream ... where little black boys & black girls ... join hands with little white boys & white girls and walk together as sisters & brothers" "I have a dream ... where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers," stated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., AUGUST 28, 1963, at the Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr., attended Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, Georgia, 1942-1944. Booker T. Washington founded...

"Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?" -George Washington Carver & Successful Black Entrepreneurs George Washington Carver was born a slave during the Civil War, possibly in 1865, but there are no records. Within a few weeks, his father, who belonged to the next farm over, was killed in a log hauling accident. Shortly after the Civil War, bushwhackers from the Democrat South kidnapped infant George with his mother and sister. Moses Carver sent friends to track down the thieves and trade his best horse to retrieve them. The thieves only left baby George, lying on...

Booker T. Washington's famous racial reconciliation speech; citing dangerous "doldrums" described by Columbus & ColeridgeOn the third of his four voyages, Columbus sailed south along the west coast of Africa before heading west across the Atlantic Ocean . There he was caught in the "doldrums," a notorious condition near the equator, called the "horse latitudes," where there is intense heat and no wind. The origin of the term "horse latitudes" came later, when ships sailing to the New World were stranded in the "doldrums" for weeks. As they baked in the sun and ran out of scarce drinking water, sailors...

There is a tragedy of historical and philosophical ignorance that is benefitting a tiny handful of people at the expense and well-being of the vast majority of black Americans. This tragedy is the purposeful erasing from the education system the history of successful black Americans before the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and the reason for their success and that of large numbers of other blacks. The leading black American at the turn of the 20th century was Booker T. Washington, whose approach was the virtual opposite of todayÂ’s grievance-focused approach that looks to government for personal progress. Washington,...

Michelle Obama’s commencement speech at Tuskegee Institute was a shameless litany of all the problems Blacks HAD over their history in America and those she felt had personally harmed her. Allowing that Blacks have made ANY progress whatsoever, especially in the past fifty years, would be absolutely not possible in the world she and her husband inhabit. Tuskegee Institute is a relative success story among the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU.) It was founded in 1881 and one of its driving forces was a former slave named Booker T. Washington, a man who recognized the opportunities that were presented...

First lady Michelle Obama may know the names of the world’s most famous clothes designers, and she may even know how to dance the Uptown Funk, but judging from her commencement speech to the graduates of a historically black university in Alabama, America’s race-baiting FLOTUS knows nothing about great American civil rights leader, accomplished scholar, and founder of Tuskegee University, the late Booker T. Washington. Michelle Obama’s remarks at the commencement sounded more like she was paying homage to W.E.B. DuBois, who believed in civil rights via agitation and political activism, than DuBois’ adversary, ex-slave Booker Taliaferro Washington, who wrote...

Booker T. Washington's philosophy: interactions between the races should be cooperative rather than adversarial Mainstream media reports usually focus on racial establishments like the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s organizations; those organizations that not only disapprove of American society, but also express hostility towards white Americans. But rarely if ever does the media mention the Booker T. Washington Society: a society that espouses Mr. Washington’s philosophy of conciliatory rather than adversarial interactions between blacks and whites. Although you probably wont see this in media reports, the black community’s approval of belligerent racial organizations has diminished over the years while the Booker...

“For the first time since President Richard M. Nixon’s divisive ‘Southern strategy’ that sent whites to the Republican Party and blacks to the Democrats …” began a New York Times story last week. Thus has one of the big lies of U.S. political history morphed into a cliche — that Richard Nixon used racist politics to steal the South from a Democratic Party battling heroically for civil rights. A brief stroll through Bruce Bartlett’s “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past” might better enlighten us. Where Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner, Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the U.S....

This goes right along with all the other grievance mongerers they cultivate.Since this is a graphic, it's hard to appreciate the full context of the quote and how devastating it really is. Here it is: "There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs—partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people...

In an earlier era, Dr. Benjamin Carson's speech before the National Prayer Breakfast last week would have been a really big deal rather than mere fodder for a brief squall on Twitter and cable news. Born in crushing poverty to an illiterate single mother dedicated to seeing her children succeed, Carson became the head of the department of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins medical institutions when he was 33. He's been a black celebrity role model ever since. Even if you didn't like the substance of what Carson had to say at the breakfast, his speech made for great political...

MARCH 26--The mother of Trayvon Martin has filed two applications to secure trademarks containing her late son’s name, records show. Sabrina Fulton is seeking marks for the phrases “I Am Trayvon” and “Justice for Trayvon,” according to filings made last week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In both instances, Fulton is seeking the trademarks for use on “Digital materials, namely, CDs and DVDs featuring Trayvon Martin,” and other products.

This February, let's acknowledge several forgotten heroes from black history. We ought to laud those who actually strove for what the laundered historical ledger pronounces as the all-encompassing intent of the civil rights movement: laws affording equal protection regardless of race. Sadly, these stalwarts in the struggle against segregation have been consigned to historical obscurity by the politically correct acclaim for their resentment-fomenting rivals. Popular culture extols Marxists like W.E.B. Du Bois, despite his repeated praise for Stalin and Mao, even while he despised everything America represents. Dubois's heritage is best perpetuated by Jeremiah Wright, Jessie Jackson, and Al Sharpton...

Booker T. Washington, the first great leader of African-Americans in the post-slavery era, who emphasized economic self-reliance above all else — including the immediate pursuit of social equality — is a nonperson at the King Center. He is an invisible man.Some might consider the historical slight to be inconsequential. But it goes some distance toward explaining the hurdle that still faces Herman Cain and his — so far — surprisingly successful quest for the GOP presidential nomination.

"When I reached home (West Virginia) I found that the salt-furnaces where not running, and that the coal-mine was not being operated on account of the miners being out on a "strike". This was something which, it seemed,usually occurred whenever the men got two or three months ahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they spent all that they had saved, and would often retrun to work in debt at the same wages, or would move to another mine at considerable expense. in either case, my observations convinced me that the miners were worse off at the end...