In Celebration Of Black History Month: Remember Way Back When
ABlack History Remembered
History is nothing more than the wa\ we have lised our lives: Where
we made our livelihood, who we called our enemies, our friends and our
lovers, where we did business.
It's important to remember way back when: there is much tcvbe proud
of. For instance, in the "40s there were 150 black-owned businesses in Win
ston-Salem.
Certainly one of the largest and most popular was Safe Bus Inc..
formed in 1926 when several businessmen who operated iitnies combined
operations. Jitnies were steam-driven vehicles. The rest of Winston-Salem
got around on street cars, but black community had been left off streetcar
lines.
The first officers* for Safe Bus were H.F. Morgan. J.H. H^irston and
C.R. Peebles. They began operations with a fleet of 35 busses and a city
wide five-cent fare/In 1941. they acquired Camel City Cab Compans,
which had operated fr^m the corner of Third and Church streets.
and 36 taxicabs. and employed 146
Tharles McLean, had two late-model
delivery trucks do handle its delivery route.
Charles T. Martin bought and operated a Pure gas station on the corner
of Fifth St. and Claremont Ave. James A. Ellington operated a well-stocked
grocery store, its walls lined with canned goods from ceiling to floor, com
plete with candy and chewing gum from California.
At least one East Winston business that thrived five decades ago is still
going strong: the assets of Winston Mutual Life Insurance approached the
quarter-million dollar mark in 1940. Winston Mutual continued to grow,
and merged with Golden State in 1985. Today, the building, construed in
1969. stands as a five-story landmark in the black community. *
This week we launch Black History Month remembering Carter G.
Woodson, the father of black, history, and other black heroes of the 20th
century They are black legends in their own time.
The Father of Black History
It not for Carter G. Woodson, much of black history would be lost. He
was convinced that if a race has no recorded history, its achievements will
be forgotteh and finally claimed by others. It was Woodson who cam
paigned for and established Negro History Week in 1926.
Woodson was born in 1875 to former slaves in New Canton, Va. As a
child, he was needed on his" parents farm and was unable to attend school
most of the year.
When he finally was able to attend high school, he completed his stud
ies in just two years. He was hired as as principal of the high schqol he had
attended, and finished college while working there.
After writing his doctoral dissertation on black history, Woodson
received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912. Just three years later,
he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
He established Negro History Week, the forerunner of Black History
Month, in 1926.
^Woodson died in 1950. His legacy to African- Americans will continue
forever.
Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915)
Booker Taliaferro Washington was a former slave who became one of
The ttlost influential African-Americans in U.S. History. He graduated from
Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and was the founder of the
National Negro Business League and Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee
University). He held influence over several African-Americans newspapers
1 1,
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and was supported by white philanthropists who supported the "separate hut
equal" educational philo<?ophy. Most historians see Washington as an
accommodationist whose work-cthic theories put too much emphasis on
manual skills, and nothing on classical academic skills. Some modern hus
4
torians characterize Washington as a man whose placating demeanor'
masked hi undercover, behind-the-scenes strategies that ultimately under
mined segregation and racism.
'Booker Taliaferro was born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin
County. Va.. to Jane Ferguson, a slave and a white man. He was freed after
the Civil War and went with his mother Do West Virginia to join Washing
ton Ferguson, whom his mother had married during the war. He worked in
the salt furnaces and coal mines by day and studied at nights with the help
of a local African-American teacher.
In 1872 he entered Hampton Institute. where he worked as a janitor.
After graduating with honors in 1875. Washington (he had changed his
name) returned to West Virginia to teach for two years before returning to
Hampton to teach in a program for Native Americans. In 1879 he received a
masters degree from Way land Seminary.
In 1881. his destiny took shape when he was recommended for. and
received, a job as principal of a new basic school for African-Americans at
Tuskegee. Ala. When he arrived in Tuskegee he found nothing ? no land,
buildings of funds for this school. So he started from scratch, teaching 30
students in a shanty donated by an African-American church. Next, he bor
rowed money to buy an abandoned plantation and relocated the school to
this site.
Now he had the beginnings of an established institution that he could
shape in accordance with his own educational philosophy. Economic inde
pendence. he believed, was the key for true liberation. His emphasis for
young men was on carpentry, printing, smithing, shoemaking. farming, etc.
For young women he emphasized cooking, sewing and other homemal&ng
skill. Emphasis was also placed on ' moral sciences," hygiene, manners and
religious services.
For 34 years Washington wouldSiead Tuskegee. watching it expand by
the time of his death to, an institution of 2.000 students and 200 African
American staff and faculty, including the agricultural scientist George
Washington Carver. Wasfiington was a highly successful fund-raiser, sup
ported by many northern w hite philanthropists. ?
He rose to true national prominence among the white business commu
nity in Atlanta and his now -famous speech at the Cotton States and Interna
tional Exposition of 1895. the year that Frederick Douglas$died. Because of
the same speech, however, he was bitterly denounced by DuBois and
William Monroe Trotter of the Boston Guardian. He urged African- Ameri
cans not to push too soon for racial equality, and he ensured whites at the
exposition that in all things that are purely social we can be as separate as
fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."
By 1900, when he published his first autobiography, he was revered in
the white community as the chief spokesman for African-Americans. His
prominence was solidified the following year when he published his second,
highly acclaimed autobiography Up From Slavery. The book, which
espoused his philosophy, was a best seller and translated into more than a
dozen languages. He was married three times ? to Fannie Norton Smith;
who died in 1884; to Olivia A. Davidson, who died in 1889; and to Mar
garet J. Murray in 1893 ? with one child from the marriage and two from
the second.
The debate over Washington continues. He was seen by Marcus Garvey
as a visionary whose philosophy on self-help and trades skills were at the
heart of self-determination for African-Americans, but Washington died
before Garvey arrived in the United States to meet him. Washington's
admirers say the thousands of successful Tuskegee graduates are testimony
enough to his importance in African-American history.
More on Booker T. Washington is found in two of his autobiographies,
The Story of My Life and Work, and Up From Slavery; and also A Biogra
phy of Booker T. Washington, by Louis R. Harlan; and Booker T. Washing
ton. by Bernard A. Weisberger.
?J&
BLACK HISTORY
^ is every month,
week after weelc,'
j in the
Winston-Salem Cfftonicle
"The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly '
a
The more you read, the more
you discover about the glorious
achievements of African-Americans.
And that leads to greater self-esteem,
self-confidence and motivation.
Coors Brewing Company is
committed to promoting those
qualities. That's why we're spending
40 million dollars to pass on the gift
of reading and writing to hundreds of
thousands/of functionally illiterate
Americans.
And you can make an equally
meaningful contribution of your own.
This February, help someone learn
to make history. Literacy. Pass it on.
>
J
LITERACY PASS IT ON.
c. 1993 Coors Brewing Company. Golden Colorado 80401 ? Brewer of Fme Beers Since 1873