February is widely known as Black History Month; however it is also Children’s Dental Health Month. In Tuskegee, Ala. both months have a great connection through Booker T. Washington. The conservative Republican educator is remembered most commonly for his role as the first president of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), but he was also the man who preached the gospel of the toothbrush.
Today, most people have a toothbrush and when they go to the store, they find a wide selection. However, 129 years ago when Mr. Washington came to Tuskegee this was not the case. Dental hygiene was barely understood or emphasized.
Tuskegee students were advanced for their time in terms of dental and general hygiene thanks to Booker T. Washington’s belief in the toothbrush. Washington learned this lesson as a student at Hampton Institute in Virginia. General Samuel C. Armstrong, the head of that institution, was the first preacher of the “gospel of the toothbrush.”
In Up From Slavery, Washington writes, “In all my teaching I have watched carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I am convinced that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more far-reaching.” As a teacher, Mr. Washington believed in educating the entire student, both mentally and physically, in regard to taking care of oneself to present the best possible face to the world. Even in his first job as a teacher, Mr. Washington would spend time beyond the basics of math and English to ensure that the students understood the use of hygiene products.
When he came to Tuskegee, no student was allowed to stay who did not utilize a toothbrush. In some cases it might be the only thing a student brought with them when they came to start school. Sometimes students did not initially understand that each person needed to have his or her own toothbrush, but they quickly learned their lesson. “With few exceptions, I have noticed that, if we can get student to the point where, when the first or second toothbrush disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have not been disappointed in the future of that individual,” wrote Mr. Washington, recounting one episode where he was inspecting rooms with a lady principal. “Absolute cleanliness of the body has been insisted upon from the first.”
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES: Booker T. Washington And The 'Gospel Of The Toothbrush'
