Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

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For the fifty years that followed its original publication in 1901, Up From Slavery was the most widely known book written by an African American. The life of Booker T. Washington was the embodiment of the American self-made man, and his autobiography gave voice for the first time to a vast group that had to pull itself up from nothing. The well-documented ordeals and observations of this humble and plainspoken schoolmaster reveal traces of Washington's other nature: the ambitious and tough-minded analyst. Here was a man who had to balance the demands of his fellow blacks with the constraints imposed on him by whites.Historically acknowledged as one of America's most powerful and persuasive orators, Booker T. Washington consistently challenged the forces of racial prejudice at a time when such behavior from a black man was unheard of. While he mollified white leaders by publicly agreeing with their racist views of social parity, he also worked tirelessly to convince blacks to work together as one people in order to improve their lives and the future of their race.This story of Booker T. Washington's rise to distinction emphasizes that a strong work ethic and excellence in whatever one is doing will be rewarded no matter what race or what position a person holds in life. As far as Washington was concerned, slavery only made the black person stronger. He also argued that both blacks and whites would benefit more from giving blacks vocational training than from encouraging the "craze for Greek and Latin learning." While this set him at odds with other black leaders of his time, it also set the groundwork for Washington's Tuskegee Institute to be the best-funded black educational institution of its era.
About the Author: Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an educator, race leader, author, and founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. He was born on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia, the son of a white slave owner he never knew and a black slave. Freed from slavery after emancipation in 1865, Washington worked as a houseboy, during which time he learned to read and write. At the time it was illegal to educate slaves in schools, so Washington's only exposure to them was when he carried his employer's daughters' books to school for them. He studied to be a teacher at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school for young blacks, and eventually became a writer and speaker on black issues and struggles.In 1881, Washington was appointed principal of the newly opened Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, and he built it up into a major center of black education. By cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists, he helped raise funds to establish and operate hundreds of small community schools and institutions of higher education for blacks. Washington had learned early the values of hard work and industrial skills and they became the foundations for the school.For a number of years, Washington toured as a lecturer, expressing his philosophy on racial advancement, education, and accomodationist compromises for blacks. His eloquent "Atlanta Compromise" speech on September 18, 1895, at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition positively appealed to northern and southern whites and blacks from the south. The fates of all were inextricably bound, he said, and he pled for greater understanding and perseverance. He emphasized that through hard work, self-discipline, and education blacks would gain their deserved respect.Though he was strongly criticized by W. E. B. Du Bois and other black leaders and his policies repudiated by the civil rights movement, Washington remains the foremost black leader of the late 1800s. In 1901, he published his autobiography, Up From Slavery, which is still widely read today. Jonathan Reese was trained from an early age in music and theater. Of his many credits he was proudest of being a founding memberof Berkeley's Straw Hat review. Formidably intelligent, deeply sympathetic, and highly sensitive to his material, he was perfectly suited for literary narration. His many audiobooks include The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, Just as I Am by Billy Graham, Travels in Alaska by John Muir, and Without a Hero by T. Coraghessan Boyle. A native Californian, Reese died in San Francisco in 1999.

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Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington Audio Book