FLASHBACK: July 4, 1881: Tuskegee Institute Is Born. Booker T. Washington Reflects

Ah, yes, I remember this day like it was yesterday. I was only 25 years old and working as a teacher at Hampton Institute. People think that I thought up Tuskegee Institute, but that is incorrect. Tuskegee Institute was the dream of Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a former slaveowner. My role was to build Mr. Adams' dream - which became true when W.F. Foster, a white man who was seeking Negro support for his eventually successful bid for the Alabama Senate, and later drafted a bill authorizing US$2,000 to start the school - into reality.

As mentioned in my best-selling autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901), on May, 1881, near the close of my first year in teaching the night-school at Hampton, in a way that I had not dared expect, the opportunity opened for me to begin my life-work. One night in the chapel, after the usual chapel exercises were over, General Sam Armstrong referred to the fact that he had received a letter from some gentlemen in Alabama asking him to recommend some one to take charge of what was to be a normal school - that's a teaching school for you young uns - for the coloured people in the little town of Tuskegee in that state. These gentlemen seemed to take it for granted that no coloured man suitable for the position could be secured, and they were expecting the General to recommend a white man for the place. The next day General Armstrong sent for me to come to his office, and, much to my surprise, asked me if I thought I could fill the position in Alabama. I told him that I would be willing to try. Accordingly, he wrote to the people who had applied to him for the information, that he did not know of any white man to suggest, but if they would be willing to take a coloured man, he had one whom he could recommend. In this letter he gave them my name. They later sent a telegram. In substance, these were its words: "Booker T. Washington will suit us. Send him at once."

Before going to Tuskegee I had expected to find there a building and all the necessary apparatus ready for me to begin teaching. To my disappointment, I found nothing of the kind. I did find, though, that which no costly building and apparatus can supply, -- hundreds of hungry, earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge.

My first task was to find a place in which to open the school. After looking the town over with some care, the most suitable place that could be secured seemed to be a rather dilapidated shanty near the coloured Methodist church, together with the church itself as a sort of assembly-room. Both the church and the shanty were in about as bad condition as was possible. I recall that during the first months of school that I taught in this building it was in such poor repair that, whenever it rained, one of the older students would very kindly leave his lessons and hold an umbrella over me while I heard the recitations of the others. I remember, also, that on more than one occasion my landlady held an umbrella over me while I ate breakfast.

It wasn't until the following year that we were able to buy the grounds of a former plantation, where Tuskegee Institute - now Tuskegee University - is still located. The buildings were constructed by students, because I am a strong believer in self-reliance and learning practical skills. Every day, I would take my horse out on an inspection tour of the Institute's farms, truck gardens, dormitories, shops, and classrooms. If I found any deficiency, I expected it to be corrected immediately. Excellence is key!

I am proud of my contributions to the education of the Negro, and it puts a smile to my face that there are people carrying on this noble profession.