Born in a slave hut APRIL 5, 1856, was Booker T. Washington.
In poverty after the Civil War, he moved to West Virginia to work in a salt furnace and coal mine.
At age 16, he walked 500 miles to attend Hampton Institute in Virginia and later Wayland Baptist Seminary in Washington, DC.
In Up From Slavery, 1901, Booker T. Washington wrote:
"Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year at the Hampton Institute was an understanding of the use and value of the Bible.
Miss Nathalie Lord, one of the teachers, from Portland, Maine, taught me how to use and love the Bible...
I learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which it gives, but on account of it as literature.
The lessons taught me in this respect took such a hold upon me that at the present time, when I am at home, no matter how busy I am, I always make it a rule to read a chapter or a portion of a chapter in the morning, before beginning the work of the day.
Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure to Miss Lord."
Booker T. Washington taught in West Virginia until he founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
In the spring of 1896, Booker T. Washington invited to George W. Carver to Tuskegee.
Booker T. Washington wrote:
"The school is strictly undenominational, but it is thoroughly Christian, and the spiritual training for the students is not neglected.
Our preaching service, prayer-meetings, Sunday-school, Christian Endeavour Society, Young Men's Christian Association, and various missionary organizations, testify to this."
Starting with 33 students, by the time Booker T. Washington died, Tuskegee Institute had grown to 1,500 students.
In
The Booker T. Washington Papers, (University of Illinois, 1974), he wrote:
"As a rule a person should get into the habit of reading his Bible.
You never read in history of any great man whose influence has been lasting, who has not been a reader of the Bible."
In his address, "The Place of the Bible in the Uplifting of the Negro Race," Memorial Hall, Columbus, Ohio, May 24, 1900, Booker T. Washington stated:
"The men doing the vital things of life are those who read the Bible and are Christians and not ashamed to let the world know it...No man can read the Bible and be lazy."
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