3b) Washington changed history through his speeches. He believed that a frontal assault against white power institutions would be useless. Instead he urged blacks to build up their segregated communities and find protection in them. A white employer was more likely to hire a docile black person so humbleness is what he advised.
3c) Booker T. Washington did what he did because was a slave himself. He understood what is was like to be ground down under slavery and he wanted the best for his people. He felt that rebellion would only get them killed. They should isolate themselves and grow away from whites. His motivation was a genuine desire to improve the lives of ex slaves and blacks throughout Reconstruction and moving forward.
3d) Why don’t you feel that blacks can achieve a greater status than whites if given the same oppurtunities?
Why do you think black people should not try to combat segregation?
Booker Washington’s success was highly influenced by a much higher level of education than the one available to other blacks in his community. Large role in this played his mother who, despite the fact she wasn’t educated herself, provided Washington with books. Later in his life, he got a position of a houseboy in the General Ruffner’s house, and soon he became favorite in the house, due to his hard work and commitment. The General’s family supported his further education and sent him to school where he learned to write and read. Also this experience taught him how to communicate and connect with white people who otherwise are alienated from the blacks. I think that this, as well as the fact Washington was born in slavery, inspired him to make changes in the community to improve the lives of many black people by collaborating with whites and opening schools for the blacks in the South.