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Rags to Respectability: Arkansas and Booker T. Washington

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From: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Date: 20080401
Author:Recken, Stephen L

WHEN BOOKER T. WASHINGTON CAME TO LITTLE ROCK in October 1913 to formally open the impressive Mosaic Templars building, the Arkansas Democrat, a local white paper, told its readers, "Head of the Negro Race in Little Rock Today to Officiate at Dedication." Washington's presence on this august occasion illustrated the influence he exercised in Arkansas. Born a slave five years before the Civil War began, Washington grew up in poverty, but through hard work graduated from Hampton Institute and then built a school of his own, Tuskegee, in Alabama. With a dramatic personal story and unyielding ...

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