Booker T. Washington: He Followed His Dream

Booker T. Washington: He Followed His Dream

In 1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington decided
he wanted to go to school. For a boy, born a slave to a
plantation cook in Virginia, who had no idea who his
white father was, this was a huge step. He decided that
he would enter the Hampton Institute in Hampton,
Virginia. With nothing more than a small satchel of
clothing, he started walking from Malden, West
Virginia, 500 miles away. Eventually he made it to
Richmond, about eighty miles from his destination. He
worked there for a few days unloading pig iron off a
ship, spending his nights on the ground under an
elevated board sidewalk. He continued his journey and
finally reached Hampton Institute. He asked the "head
teacher" for admission.

Washington later recalled, "Having been so long without
proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not
make a very favorable impression upon her, and I could
see at once that there were doubts in her mind about
the wisdom of admitting me as a student." The teacher
delayed a decision about Booker while she admitted
other students, and he waited anxiously. Finally, she
said to him, "The adjoining recitation room needs
sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it."

"It occurred to me at once that here was my chance," he
wrote. "Never did I receive an order with more delight.
I swept the recitation room three times. Then I got a
dusting cloth and I dusted it four times." He cleaned
the walls and closets. "I had the feeling," he
continued, "that in a large measure my future depended
upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the
cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported
to her. She was a 'Yankee' woman who knew just where to
look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the
floor and closets. Then she took her handkerchief and
rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the
table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit
of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of
the furniture, she quietly remarked, 'I guess you will
do to enter this institution.'"

"I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping
of that room was my college examination, and never did
any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard
or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I have
passed several examinations since then, but I have
always felt that this was the best one I ever passed."

Booker T. Washington not only passed that examination,
but he kept a job as a janitor to help pay his
expenses. In June 1875, he graduated on the honor roll
and as one of the commencement speakers. Booker T.
Washington was a dreamer who backed up his dreams with
action.

-- Cited on www.sermons.com
Note: "Booker Taliaferro Washington was an
African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
to Republican presidents. He was the dominant leader in
the African-American community in the United States
from 1890 to 1915." Wikipedia