1. born into slavery to a white father and a slave mother in a rural area in southwestern Virginia in 1856 2. worked in West Virginia in a variety of manual labor jobs before making his way to Hampton Roads seeking an education 3. In 1881, he was chosen to be new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. 4. famous for his “Atlanta Address” of 1895, attracting the attention of politicians and the public as a popular spokesperson for African American citizens 5. played a dominant role in black politics, winning wide support in the black community and among more liberal whites (especially rich Northern whites); gained access to top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education; helped raise funds to establish and operate thousands of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of blacks throughout the South through cooperating with the white people 6. died in 1915
To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions.
..shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the