Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 214
women's industries, is one of the half-dozen leading executives of the
institution. In addition to her many and varied family and official duties at the
Institute Mrs. Washington has always been a leader in social service and club
work among the women of her race throughout the country, and has besides all
this come to be a kind of mother confessor, advisor, and guide to hundreds of
young men and women. We will conclude this chapter by quoting in large part
an article written by Mr. Scott and published some years ago in the Ladies'
Home Journal, which describes how and when Mrs. Washington entered her
husband's life and work and the part she played in his affairs:
"Even before the war closed there came to the South on the heels of the army of
emancipation an army of
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school teachers. They came to perfect with the spelling-book and the reader the
work that the soldiers had begun with the sword. It was during this period in the
little straggling village of Macon, Miss., that a little girl, called then Margaret
Murray, but who is known now as Mrs. Booker T. Washington, was born. When
she grew old enough to count she found herself one of a family of ten and, like
nearly all children of Negro parentage, at that time, very poor.
"In the grand army of teachers who went South in 1864 and 1865 were many
Quakers. Prevented by the tenets of their religion from entering the army as
soldiers these people were the more eager to do the not less difficult and often
dangerous work of teachers among the freedmen after the war was over.
"One of the first memories of her childhood is of her father's death. It was when
she was seven years old. The next day she went to the Quaker school teachers, a
brother and sister, Sanders by name, and never went back home to live.
"Thus at seven she became the arbiter of her own fate. The incident is
interesting in showing thus early a certain individuality and independence of
character which she has exhibited all through her life. In the breaking or
loosening of the family relations after the death of her father she determined to
bestow herself upon her Quaker neighbors. The secret of it, of course, was that
the child was possessed even then with a passion for knowledge which has
never since deserted her. Rarely does a day
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24.03.2006