Booker T. Washington - Success and Leadership
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
African American leader (pictured right), born a Virginian slave, but freed when he was six.
Why was he a great leader and successful?
1. Principles
He believed that everyone (black or white) has the right to:
- make the best of their opportunities (through the best possible
education and hard work -see point 2).
“One cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him”, he said.
2. Fighter for character and education
He thought that African Americans would be the equals of whites through:
- education and self-reliance
- responsibility and character.
Washington said
“Character, not circumstances, makes the man”
He also strongly believed in a virtuous, simple and useful life without intellectual
snobbery.
“No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem”, he
said.
3. Co-operation
To help African Americans, Washington
- co-operated with powerful and rich white people .
- was the first African American (in 1901) to visit the White House as a guest of the
president (Theodore Roosevelt) - pictured
right above together.
- attracted the support of rich whites like the businessmen, Andrew Carnegie (pictured right), Henry
Rogers and Julius Rosenwald (pictured right below), who together funded
thousands of schools for blacks.
Washington even:
- accepted segregation
- didn’t publicly condemn lynchings.
But his conciliatory attitude was attacked by more militant black leaders like W.E.B. Du
Bois (1868-1963).
Du Bois (pictured right below)
- called Washington “The Great Accommodator”.
- believed that blacks would remain permanently inferior without big changes in American society and more
militant action.
4. Determination
Washington was a self-made man, who overcame:
- the tragic deaths of his first two wives.
- hostility from other blacks (see point 3).
As a boy he had to work, but went to night school and eventually university.
5. Hard work
He died young (59) due to a lifetime of hard work and dedication to the African American
people.
He said:
“Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work”.
.
6. Support
He said he would not have been successful without the love and support of his three
wives (pictured right with his third wife, Margaret, and two sons).
Key quote on
management
You cannot hold a man down without staying down with him
Key quote on work
No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem
Key quote on
ethics
Character, not circumstances, makes the man.
Key quote on influencing
people
The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.
Key quote on
empowerment
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust
him.
Key quote on
careers
Excellence is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which
he has overcome.
Key quote on
communication
We must reinforce argument with results.
Key quotes on
success
The circumstances that surround a man's life are not important. How that man responds to those circumstances is
important.
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
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