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Adulthood

After graduation Washington became a teacher in Tinkersville, West Virginia for three years. In 1878 he left to attend Wayland Seminary in Washington DC, but quit after six months. In 1879 Armstrong asked him to return to Hampton Institute as a teacher. Washington did so, and then in 1881 Armstrong recommended him as the principal of a new school called Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

July 4, 1881 was the first day of school at Tuskegee Institute. It was a humble beginning, but under Washington's care both the school and Washington grew to be world famous. His school made lasting and profound contributions to the South and to the United States - such as through the work of one of its teachers - George Washington Carver. One of his main problems was always finding enough money. The support he received from the state was neither generous nor stable enough to build the kind of school he was developing. So he had to raise the money himself by going on speaking tours and solicitating donations. He received a lot of money from white northerners who were impressed with the work he was doing and his non-threatening racial views. Industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller would donate money on a regular basis.

It was these non-threatening racial views that gave Washington the appellation "The Great Accomodater". He believed that blacks should not push to attain equal civil and political rights with whites. That it was best to concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement resting squarely on the shoulders of the black man. Eventually they would earn the respect and love of the white man, and civil and political rights would be accrued as a matter of course. This was a very non-threatening and popular idea with a lot of whites.

As Washington's influence with whites and blacks grew he reaped several honors. In 1901 he wrote a bestseller called Up From Slavery - his autobiography. He also became an advisor to the President of the United States - Theodore Roosevelt. He became the first black ever to dine at the White House with the President. This created a huge scandal. Many white people thought that it was wrong for whites and blacks to mix socially, and for their President to do it horrified them. Roosevelt defended his actions at the time, and he continued to ask for Washington's advice, but he never invited him back.

Eventually Washington's leadership of blacks began to decline. It became apparent that the white people that had gained control of Southern institutions after Reconstruction did not ever want the civil and political status of blacks to improve - regardless of how hard they worked or how much character they had. They passed laws to keep them from voting and to keep them from mixing with whites in schools, stores and restaurants. Many blacks came to believe that a more forceful, demanding approach was needed. They turned to the leadership of William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP.

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