Museum - Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy, Virginia

This is just a reminder that our Harvest Time Event was cancelled for this Saturday, November 7. Due to Covid-19 and CDC guidelines, the park made the difficult decision a few months ago to cancel this year's event. We are hoping that we can have this event again in Fall 2021.

In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about what he thought of Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Institute. The article was entitled "Of Booker T. Washington and Others." "In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, First, political power,... Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education of Negro youth,and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years. As a result of this tender of the palm-branch, what has been the return? In these years there have occurred: 1. The disfranchisement of the Negro. 2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro. 3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro. These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington’s teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meager chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic NO. And Mr. Washington thus faces the triple paradox of his career: 1. He is striving nobly to make Negro artisans business men and property-owners; but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property- owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage. 2. He insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same time counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority such as is bound to sap the manhood of any race in the long run. 3. He advocates common-school and industrial training, and depreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither the Negro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges, or trained by their graduates." What do you think of Du Bois writings concerning Booker T. Washington's philosophy of education? https://teachingamericanhistory.org//of-booker-t-washingt/ #DidYouKnow #BookerTWashingtonNM #CivilRights

The 422nd National Park has been established in St. Genevieve, Missouri! Read more about this new National Park. https://www.doi.gov//trump-administration-establishes-ste-

#DidYouKnow that in the only 59 years that Booker T. Washington liived, he authored 13 books? Here is a list: The Story of My Life and Work, Up From Slavery, My Larger Education, The Future of the Negro, The Negro Problem, Tuskegee and its People, Working with the Hands, Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery, The Negro in the South, The Negro in Business, The Man Farthest Down, The Story of Slavery, Sowing and Reaping. #motivationmonday #BookerTWashingtonNM #FindYourPark

I want you to go out into the world, not to have an easy time, but to make sacrifices, and to help somebody else.--Booker T. Washington (Character Building, Chapter Two: Helping Others) Booker T. Washington described education during the Reconstruction period (1867 to 1878) in his autobiography Up From Slavery. Throughout Reconstruction, Washington spent his time as a student at Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia. He noted blacks' interest in Greek and Latin learning a...nd the desire to hold political office. He was also known to expect the best from his students at Tuskegee Institute and often crafted his speeches around his support for helping others. Washington once stated, This institution does not exist for your education alone; it does not exist for your comfort and happiness altogether, although those things are important, and we keep them in mind; it exists that we may give you intelligence, skill of hand, and strength of mind and heart; and we help you in these ways that you, in turn, may help others. (Character Building, Chapter Two: Helping Others) #findyourpark #BookerTWashingtonNationalMonument #TuskegeeInstituteNHS

How do we learn about history in special places like Booker T. Washington National Monument? One method is through archeology. October is #ArcheologyMonth, and ...this post comes from Booker T. Washington National Monument! The most recent cultural landscape study discusses the structures that remain at the site from the time that Booker T. Washington lived on the Burrough’s plantation, 1856-1865. It says that the oldest structure in the park is the tobacco barn dated to 1894. The barn is thought to contain logs from the Burroughs era, though it has been changed over the years by various occupants. Documented archeological remains exist for what has traditionally been thought of as the Burroughs house and two slave cabins (one where the kitchen cabin is reconstructed). Other remains of slave cabins and barns likely exist throughout the park. From November 29-December 24, 2018, an archeological excavation in the park took place to try to locate some areas where other slave quarters might have been. Excavations occurred in the Sparks Cemetery and surrounding area. The investigations included historical and archival background research, fieldwork and laboratory analysis conducted by Louis Berger U.S., Inc., a WSP Company on behalf of the National Park Service. These excavations did not locate any former slave quarters but determined that these were areas used for human activities for perhaps thousands of years! In future years, archeology will continue to be a method used to determine more information about the site where Booker T. Washington was born and freed! Information taken from: Cultural Landscape Report for Booker T. Washington National Monument: Site History, Existing Conditions, Analysis, and Treatment by the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation and Archeological Investigations at Sparks Cemetery and Foundation to Identify Possible Former Slave Quarters Booker T. Washington National Monument by WSP, Louis Berger U.S., Inc. for the Northeast Region National Park Service.

On this day in 1899, Booker T. Washington corresponded with W.E.B. DuBois and extended an invitation for DuBois to conduct sociological studies at Tuskegee Institute (now University). Washington offered DuBois a $1,400 salary per year and permanent housing. #themoreyouknow ... #BookerTWashingtonNationalMonument #findyourpark #OTD See more

In the years between 1908 and 1912, Booker T. Washington visited several southern states making "educational pilgrimages." In the fall of 1910, Washington and many businessmen and A.M.E. Zion clergymen went across North Carolina, making speeches in Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, High Point, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Reidsville, Durham, Wilson, Rocky Mount, New Bern, and Wilmington. See more information and pictures about this pilgrimage on the Black Wide-Awake: Documents of Historical and Genealogical Interest to Researchers of Wilson County, North Carolina's African-American Past https://afamwilsonnc.com//booker-t-washingtons-southern-t/

"Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."-Dr. Booker T. Washington In what ways will you help to make someone else's day a little brighter? Please feel free to share your thoughts below. #WisdomWednesdays... #BookerTWashingtonNationalMonument #findyourpark See more

In Booker T. Washington's Sunday Evening talks on character building, Dr. Washington gave a lecture on "A Penny Saved." He said that, "The people who succeed are, very largely, those who learn to economize time, in the ways I have referred to, and those who also have learned to save, not only time, but money." Learn more about this evening talk on www.btwsociety.org! http://btwsociety.org/books/character-building.php

This starts today! https://americasnationalparks.org/passport-to-your-nationa/ #RecreateResponsibly... #BookerTWashingtonNM See more

"My dear Mr. President (Theodore Roosevelt)- I shall be very glad to accept your invitation for dinner this evening at seven-thirty. Yours very truly, Booker T. Washington" (Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 6, page 243) #OnThisDayInHistory, October 16, 1901, Dr. Booker T. Washington accepted an invitation to dine at the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt. After this meeting, many newspapers reported about it and attacked President Roosevelt for inviting Washington... to have dinner and not to be serving dinner at the White House. #BookerTWashingtonNM #Equality Image: White House Historical Association

Booker T. Washington developed its last interpretive plan in 1999. This week park staff, volunteers and some community members will be working to develop the park's new Long Range Interpretive Plan 2020. Below is a link for the 1999 plan which will be replaced by the plan currently being developed. https://www.nps.gov//upl/Comprehensive-Interp-Plan-508.pdf #FindYourPark... #BookerTWashingtonNM See more

If you enjoy hiking, this might be something you want to do! https://americasnationalparks.org/passport-to-your-nationa/ #RecreateResponsibly... #BookerTWashingtonNM See more