Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 196
and ultimate ends. His grasp of every detail seems more remarkable when one
realizes the dimensions of his administrative task. Besides leading his race in
America, and to some extent throughout the world, and raising between one
hundred thousand and two hundred thousand dollars each year, he administered
an institution whose property and endowment are valued at almost four million
dollars. Although the original property of the school was only a hundred acres
of land with three small buildings, it now owns twenty-four hundred acres, with
one hundred and eleven buildings, large and small, in its immediate vicinity. In
addition to these twenty-four hundred acres of land the school now owns also
about twenty thousand acres, being the unsold balance of a grant of twenty-five
thousand acres of mineral land, made by the Federal Government as an
endowment to the Institute in 1899.
The organization of the Institute ramifies throughout the entire county in which
it is located. It has a resident
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student population of between fifteen hundred and two thousand boys and girls,
with a teaching force of about two hundred men and women. It enrolls in its
courses throughout the year from thirty-five hundred to four thousand persons.
The receipts of its post office exceed those of the entire postal service of the
Negro Republic of Liberia in Africa. In a given year the revenues of Liberia
were $301,238 and the expenditures $314,000. In the same year the receipts
from all sources of Tuskegee Institute were $321,864.87 and its expenditures
$341,141.58.
Booker Washington so organized this great institution that it ran smoothly and
without apparent loss of momentum for the nine months out of the twelve,
during the greater part of which he was obliged to be absent raising the funds
with which to keep it going. The Institute is in continuous session throughout
the twelve months of the year. During the summer months a summer school for
teachers is conducted in place of the academic department. For the purposes of
this summer school all or most of the trades and industries are kept in operation.
The school is organized on this basis. There is, first, a Board of Trustees which
holds the property in trust and advises the principal as to general policies, etc.,
and aids him in the raising of funds; second, the principal, who has sole charge
of all administrative matters; third, an executive council, composed of the heads
of departments, with the principal as its chairman. The following officers serve
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