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Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery, 1901

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born into slavery in Virginia and freed at the end of the Civil War, when he was about nine. As a boy in Malden, West Virginia, he worked at salt furnaces and in a coal mine, studying when he could. In chapter 2 of his autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), he recalls envying white boys, until he learned how success should be measured. In 1881 he became the first head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which he built into a leading Black college.

Türkçe oku
Başarı, insanın hayatta ulaştığı konumdan çok, başarmaya çalışırken aştığı engellerle ölçülmelidir.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery, 1901

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Virginia'da köle olarak doğdu; İç Savaş bittiğinde, dokuz yaşlarındayken özgürlüğüne kavuştu. Çocukluğu Batı Virginia'daki Malden kasabasında, tuz kaynatma ocaklarında ve bir kömür madeninde çalışarak geçti; fırsat buldukça ders çalıştı. 1901'de yayımlanan otobiyografisi Up from Slavery'nin (Kölelikten Yükseliş) ikinci bölümünde, bir zamanlar beyaz çocuklara imrendiğini anlatır; başarının nasıl ölçülmesi gerektiğini öğrenince bu imrenme geçmiştir. 1881'de Alabama'daki Tuskegee Enstitüsü'nün ilk müdürü oldu ve okulu siyahi öğrenciler için önde gelen bir okula dönüştürdü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Booker T. Washington
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