The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-11-16
Booker Washington
BenefactOr of His Race

Whenever the need becomes great
+ snough, leader or savior springs up
among the people to answer the neces-
\ dty. All through history we can trace
this spiritual law, though these saviors,
HE Jesus himself are net always Feeeg-
rixed until they ha 5een tortured by
revilings and the de-. ignorance OF the
massss; their messages being all but bur-
I'd In the pressure of materialism and
tuil, which have come to mean our life
Such q leader and savior of his race
vas Booker T. Washington, who died in
his southern home on Sunday, after a
He time spent In the most unselfish and
\ earnest endeavor to bring light out Of
darkness to his own people.
Happily he was not so misunderstood
and reviled but was able, during his own
HE, to see the results of his labors and
receive the gratitude and homage which
were his due.
Born at Hale's Ford, Va, in 1858, with
! white father (name unknown) and
black mother, he lived the life of the
average slave, cared for more or less,
working hard, and penniless. At the end
u the war, he went with his mother and
Step-father to Maiden w. Va, where he
worked in salt furnace and managed
70 20 to night school. He gradually
saved enough money to get to Richmond,
having in view the Hampton Institute.
But when he arrived in Richmond he
was again penniless and slept under a
side walk. Here he got job unloading
vessels and he saved enough money to
get him to Hampton, even having fifty
cents left in his pocket. He obtained a
position as assistant janitor in the insti-
tute and worked his way through, grad
uating three years later, with honors. He
later became professor in the school
and when the state of Alabama applied
- Hampton for someone to start another
educational center, Booker Washington
Vas chosen as the most promising per-
oon. He arrived at Tuskegee and found
naither land or buildings, only promise
from the state to contribute $4,000 g
year to such an institution when started
Booker Washington started his school in
m old church with 80 pupils and was the
cole instructor. He managed to borrow
= little money from one of his old teach.
&s, bought an old plantation and put UP
: rude building. By his own, unaided
B efforts, he paid off this debt, and since
then the history of the school is well
known. It is now valued at $780, 900
and since 1882 has graduated more than
5000 students.
The financial accomplishments Of Mr..
Warrington were, under the circum-
stances, tremendous; but what he accom-
4 pdshed along mental and moral lines
was far greater. He was given raw ma
tsEial to handle; people used to servi-
tude who had but recently attained lib
( srty; people who, for generations back,
had had no mental training and were ST.
I perstitious and emotional beyond all 9TH
efs; people for whom civilization had
done nothing but make of them "hewers
Of wood and drawers of water" and had
repaid them by selling and bartering
them like cattle. The huge task Of work
Ing over this mas and making it int
trustworthy, independent, enhghteu pr
manhood and womanhood was his, anC
he never faltered.
The progress of the negro race since
I The end of the Civil War, is said, by his
\ torians, to be the most remarkable eve
Y achieved by any race in the same lenxtl
!; scf time, and the concensus of opinion vii
4 probably be that Booker I. Washington
was the most potent factor in this grea
mental and spiritual development.
M May America honor his name witt
those of her noblest sons.