Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 187
is to know two Washingtons, one white, the other black, both Fathers of their
people. I am satisfied that the serious race question of the South is to be solved
wisely only by following Booker Washington's policy which he seems to have
been specially born--a slave among slaves--to establish, and even in his own
day, greatly to advance.
So glad to be able to assist this good work in which you and others are engaged.
Yours truly,
(Signed) ANDREW CARNEGIE.To Mr. Wm. H. Baldwin, Jr., New York City,
N. Y.
This great gift delighted Booker Washington not only for what it meant directly
to his work, but because it so strikingly illustrated a truth which he had long and
insistently impressed upon his staff and his students: namely, that if every dollar
contributed were made to do
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the work of two, more dollars would be forthcoming from the same source.
The two events upon which Booker Washington's popular fame chiefly rests are
his speech before the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Ga., in 1895, and the
publication of "Up from Slavery" five years later. Since "Up from Slavery"
played so great a part in aiding its author to secure funds for his work it seems
appropriate to give here some account of how it came to be written, how it was
written, and how it was received.
In the year 1900 the editors of the Outlook decided to illustrate in the concrete
the opportunities of America by getting some of the Americans of greatest
achievement to tell how they had risen by their own efforts from the very depths
of untoward circumstances. For this purpose they selected Jacob A Riis and
Booker T. Washington. After much hesitancy on his part and urgency on theirs
Booker Washington finally agreed to write the story of his life for serial
publication in the Outlook. His hesitancy was due merely to the fact that he
could not believe that the events of his life would be of any interest to the
public. So convinced was he in this belief that he had the greatest difficulty in
starting to write even after he had agreed to do so. Finally, after a particularly
urgent letter from the editors, he stole some hours from his absorbing and
exacting duties at Tuskegee to write the first chapter. After these efforts had
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