African-American
Leaders and Educators
By: Ellie Folkema
The African-American leaders and
educators, all of the people who helped and
supported the African-Americans had a
very important role. They were brave and
wonderful people who did whatever they
needed to do to help out AfricanAmericans.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was one of the
most important African-American leaders.
He was born into slavery and he became a
respected educator while in his twenties.
Washington’s strategy to help AfricanAmericans was not to fight discrimination
directly, but instead he encouraged
African-Americans to improve their
educational and economic well-being.
He believed this would lead to the end
of discrimination.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington founded the
Tuskegee Institute in 1881, which
was a college. He served as
Tuskegee’s principal and instructor for
33 years.
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was an
American scientist, botanist, educator, and
inventor. Carver was born into slavery.
Carver had in his previous years learned
how to grow his own crops, so in 1896,
Tuskegee Institute invited Carver to head its
Agriculture Department. Carver accepted the
offer and taught at
Tuskegee Institute for
forty-seven years.
Blanche Kelso Bruce
Blanche Kelso Bruce was born on March 1,
1841. Bruce grew up in slavery in Virginia.
He started out by teaching
at a school for blacks.
Later on, Bruce became
an important Republican
in Mississippi and
was the first non-white
Senator to serve a full term.
W.E.B. DuBois
W.E.B. DuBois was born in
Massachusetts and was a college
graduate who earned a doctorate
from Harvard University. DuBois
took a direct approach to fighting
racial injustice. DuBois believed that
African-Americans should protest
unjust treatment and demand equal
rights. In 1909 DuBois and other
reformers founded the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, otherwise known as
the NAACP. This was an
organization that called for economic
and educational equality for African
Americans.
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells was a Journalist
who wrote articles about the
unequal education available to
African-American children.
drew attention the lynching of AfricanAmericans. She was against
lynching and was trying to stop it.
Wells was also active in the
women’s rights and women’s
suffrage movement. In 1906, she
joined with W.E.B. DuBois and
others to further the Niagara
Movement: She was one of the two
African-American women to sign
“the call” to form the NAACP in
1909.
All of these people helped to make AfricanAmericans lives fairer and for AfricanAmericans to get better education and better
opportunities for their people in the future.
Without these leaders, the AfricanAmericans wouldn’t have had the same
opportunities that they have today.
Sources
Bruce Blanche, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Bruce
George Washington Carver,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver
Ida B. Wells,
http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibw
ells/ibwbkgrd.html
United States History, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007,
Section 3 The Rights of Women and Minorities, Pages
677-678
World Book, Volume 19, Tuskegee University, p.525