Tag: Booker T Washington

November 27, 1848: African-American Educator William H. Davis Born

African-American educator William H. Davis was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 27, 1848. As a young man of 15, he enlisted in the Union Army and served in a Light Guard company that helped protect President Abraham Lincoln.

After the Civil War, Davis settled in Malden—about 10 miles east of Charleston—and became a school teacher. Malden was an important center of African-American history and culture because of the large number of black laborers who worked in the saltworks there. His most famous pupil was a young Booker T. Washington, who would go on to become the nation’s most prominent black educator.

In 1870, Davis became principal of the black grade school in Charleston, a position he served in for 24 years. He was also an active member of the African Zion Church in Malden and the First Baptist Church in Charleston.

In the 1930s, Davis was a guest of honor at the Booker T. Washington anniversary celebration at Tuskegee University in Alabama, the famed college founded by Washington.

William H. Davis died at his home in Charleston in 1938 at age 89.

August 15, 1906: Niagara Movement Meets in Harpers Ferry

The Niagara Movement—an important civil rights group—held its first public meeting at Harpers Ferry’s Storer College on August 15, 1906.

The movement emerged from increasing philosophical differences between Booker T. Washington—the most powerful black leader of his day—and more radical intellectuals.

While Washington wanted to work more closely with the white community to improve African-Americans’ economic status, his critics—led by W. E. B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, and others—urged a more militant approach.

The one-year-old movement was named for an earlier meeting at Niagara Falls. The leaders chose Harpers Ferry for its first public meeting in honor of abolitionist John Brown, who’d led an ill-fated raid on the town’s armory in 1859.

The 1906 assembly included a barefoot pilgrimage to John Brown’s Fort, and DuBois dedicated the group’s mission to Brown. Although most of the Niagara leaders were not from West Virginia, J. R. Clifford—a graduate of Storer College and West Virginia’s first black lawyer and newspaper publisher—played an active role.

The Niagara Movement dissolved in 1911, when DuBois suggested forming a new interracial group: the NAACP.

April 5, 1856: Educator Booker T. Washington Born in Franklin County, VA

Educator Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, on April 5, 1856. After the Civil War, he relocated to Malden, a few miles east of Charleston, where he attended a one-room school for blacks.

He also was tutored by Viola Ruffner, whom he later credited for instilling in him the qualities of cleanliness and hard work.

After graduating from Hampton Institute in Virginia, Washington returned to West Virginia as a teacher. In 1879, he went back to Hampton as a professor. But when school was out, he’d come home to work in West Virginia’s coal mines.

In 1881, he opened a college for African-American teachers in Tuskegee, Alabama. Tuskegee Institute would become one of the country’s finest schools for blacks. And Washington would become the nation’s unofficial spokesman for African-Americans. He was controversial, though, in some circles for urging cooperation among whites and blacks.

Booker T. Washington returned regularly to West Virginia to visit family members and make speeches. He died in Tuskegee in 1915 at age 59. A monument of Washington is located on the state capitol grounds in Charleston.

Niagara Movement Meets in Harpers Ferry: August 15, 1906

The Niagara Movement—an important civil rights group—held its first public meeting at Harpers Ferry’s Storer College on August 15, 1906.

The movement emerged from increasing philosophical differences between Booker T. Washington—the most powerful black leader of his day—and more radical intellectuals.

While Washington wanted to work more closely with the white community to improve African-Americans’ economic status, his critics—led by W. E. B. DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, and others—urged a more militant approach.

The one-year-old movement was named for an earlier meeting at Niagara Falls. The leaders chose Harpers Ferry for its first public meeting in honor of abolitionist John Brown, who’d led an ill-fated raid on the town’s armory in 1859.

The 1906 assembly included a barefoot pilgrimage to John Brown’s Fort, and DuBois dedicated the group’s mission to Brown. Although most of the Niagara leaders were not from West Virginia, J. R. Clifford—a graduate of Storer College and West Virginia’s first black lawyer and newspaper publisher—played an active role.

The Niagara Movement dissolved in 1911, when DuBois suggested forming a new interracial group: the NAACP.

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