Answer to Question #127425 in History for Jalen

Question

Where did Booker T. Washington get his ideas about education?
Why were job opportunities more plentiful in the North from the 1890s to the 1920s?

Answer 1

Washington Booker, was one of the most influential personalities in American history expressed his ideologies with consideration never to agitate the whites or incite blacks but for the prosperity of everyone. Booker managed to maneuver through the boundaries of slavery to attain formal education where he first got enrolled at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (present Hampton University) in 1872. He worked as a custodian to fund his education. Booker managed to graduate in 1875 that enabled him to be a teacher for children in day school. He further taught adults during the nights when they were off day duties. After his successful studies at Wayland Seminary, Washington D.C, he was recruited in the staff of Hampton (1878-79). His persistence hard work awarded him a position as the head of a new institution, African American at Tuskegee in 1881. He is well known for the effort he placed in developing the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. He went further to attain honorary degrees from Havard University in 1896 and Dartmouth College in 1901 (Meier, 1988). His mode of ideologies was conducive to encourage hard work for economic development alongside empowering blacks with skills for self-reliance.

The onset of the first world war that began in 1914 led to the decline of agricultural production in Europe which brought an advantage to the American farmers. Most learning Institutions invested mostly inculcating agricultural skills to enhance the increase in agricultural production for the great demand in the European market. Moreover, this error was marked with declining population growth and corresponding economic development. More job opportunities were available for a reasonable population. The 1920s marked the error of rapid economic development. The period had the adoption of rail and automobile that that was handy in the transportation of both people and commodities. Other related facilities, like the construction of infrastructure, the building of new cities provide job opportunities for the Americans.

Reference

Meier, A. (1988). Negro thought in America, 1880-1915: racial ideologies in the age of Booker T. Washington (Vol. 118). University of Michigan Press.