Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History
Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History
Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History
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<strong>Booker</strong> T. <strong>Washington</strong>, <strong>Builder</strong> of a Civilization. 216<br />
"But upon graduation day, June, 1889, <strong>Booker</strong> T. <strong>Washington</strong> was at Fisk, and<br />
he sat opposite Margaret Murray at table. About that time it was arranged that<br />
she should go to Texas, but, without knowing just how it came about, she<br />
decided to go to Tuskegee and become what was then called the Lady Principal<br />
of the school. Mrs. <strong>Washington</strong> has been at Tuskegee ever since.<br />
"Mrs. <strong>Washington</strong>'s duties as the wife of the Principal of the Tuskegee Institute<br />
are many and various. She has charge of all the industries for girls. She gives<br />
much time to the extension work of the school, which includes the 'Mothers'<br />
meetings' in the town of Tuskegee and the 'plantation settlement' nearby. Her<br />
most characteristic trait, however, is a boundless sympathy which has made her<br />
a sort of Mother Confessor to students and<br />
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teachers of the Institute. All go to her for comfort and advice.<br />
"The 'mothers' meetings' grew out of the first Tuskegee Negro Conference held<br />
at Tuskegee in February, 1892. Mrs. <strong>Washington</strong>, as she sat in the first meeting<br />
of Negro farmers and heard what they had to say, was impressed with the fact<br />
that history was repeating itself. Here again, as in the early days of the woman's<br />
suffrage movement, women had no place worth mentioning in the important<br />
concerns of life outside the household. While there were many women present<br />
at this first conference, they did not seem to realize that they had any interest in<br />
the practical affairs that were being discussed by their sons and husbands. While<br />
her husband was trying to give these farmers new ideas, new hopes, new<br />
aspirations, the thought came to Mrs. <strong>Washington</strong> that the Tuskegee village was<br />
the place for her to begin a work which should eventually include all the women<br />
of the county and of the neighboring counties. The country colored women<br />
crowd into the villages of the South on Saturday, seeking to vary the monotony<br />
of their hard and cheerless lives. Mrs. <strong>Washington</strong> determined to get hold of<br />
these women and utilize the time spent in town to some good purpose.<br />
Accordingly, the first mothers' meeting was organized in the upper story of an<br />
old store which then stood on the main street of the village. The stairs were so<br />
rickety that the women were almost afraid to ascend them. It answered the<br />
purpose temporarily, however, and there was no rent to pay. How to get the<br />
women to the meeting<br />
Page 297<br />
24.03.2006