A Legacy of History and Education at Tuskegee

Tuskegee Institute, one of the nation’s foremost black schools, is not only a university, but a national park as well.

About 53 acres of the main campus and 25 historic buildings in the area--many still in use as classrooms, dormitories, school offices and a hospital, theater, museum and chapel--are jointly administered by the National Park Service and Tuskegee Institute.

Last year, 100,000 men, women and children from every state and many foreign countries came here not as students, but to visit the school made famous by Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

They mingled on campus with the 3,500 students from 43 states and 32 other nations, including 150 students from Nigeria.

In the heart of the campus, not far from the university’s striking chapel, are the graves of Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver in that part of the school set aside by President Gerald Ford in 1974 as a National Historic Site.

Across from the graves stands Charles Keck’s 1922 monument to Booker T. Washington, with the inscription:

Booker T. Washington 1856-1915. He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry.

Nearby is the red-brick George Washington Carver Museum, dedicated by Henry Ford in 1941 when the auto maker came to Tuskegee to pay tribute to the aging professor-scientist. Carver died two years later.

The museum, now part of the Tuskegee National Historic Site, preserves and exhibits paintings, tools, handiwork and lab experiments produced by the famed scientist during his 40 years as a member of Tuskegee Institute’s faculty.

Carver came to Tuskegee in 1896 to head up the agricultural college and conduct his research and experiments with peanuts, sweet potatoes and other crops.

“Just the history itself of Tuskegee attracts many students. Its history and pre-eminence in the academic world,” insists Ron Sample, 22, a senior from San Bernardino, Calif., majoring in computer science. “As a black person I have a good feeling being here.”

It was Booker T. Washington, a former slave, who founded Tuskegee Institute on July 4, 1881. He was only 22.

Washington answered the call to start a teachers’ school for blacks after Lewis Adams, a tinsmith and former slave, and George W. Campbell, a banker and former slave owner--an unlikely combination--persuaded the Alabama Legislature to establish the school in Tuskegee.

The Legislature appropriated $2,000 to launch Tuskegee Institute, making no provisions for land or buildings. That was left to Washington. Classes were started in an abandoned plantation shanty with 30 young men and women, the school’s first students.

Washington’s objective was to turn out teachers who would go across the land and bring education to blacks. He succeeded beyond his greatest expectations.

To help pay for their education, students spent time each day growing crops and raising livestock. They became brickmakers. They built the classrooms, dormitories and other school buildings from red bricks fired on campus.

By the time Washington died in 1915, Tuskegee had become an internationally famous institution. The main campus had grown to include more than 100 buildings on 268 acres--the buildings constructed by students out of those red bricks. Nearly all of the student-constructed buildings are still in use today, many of them part of the national park on campus.

Tuskegee Institute’s undergraduate instruction comes under seven major areas: the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Agriculture and Home Economics, School of Business, School of Education, School of Engineering and Architecture, School of Nursing and Allied Health, and the School of Veterinary Medicine.

There are 76 degrees offered, including 45 bachelor’s, 26 master’s, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and four graduate degrees for educational specialists.

The veterinary school is one of only 27 in the nation. Founded in 1944, it has trained 90% of the black DVMs in America. There are 260 students in the veterinary school; 69 or 29% are white, the rest are black. Of the 39,000 doctors of veterinary medicine in the country, only 600 or 1.5% are black.

Construction is under way for the new $12.6-million Gen. Daniel (Chappie) James Center for Aerospace Science on campus, paid for by a $9-million federal grant and a $3.5-million appropriation from the Alabama Legislature. A fund-raising drive is under way to raise another $6.1 million for equipment, scholarships and endowments.

“As recently as four years ago, only 22 black students were among those earning aerospace engineering degrees in the entire country,” noted Benjamin F. Payton, Tuskegee’s fifth president in its 104-year history. “And, it wasn’t until 1983 that a black person was included on America’s astronaut team.”

No other predominantly black institution in the nation offers an aerospace engineering program. It was here at Tuskegee during World War II that the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s black fighter and bomber pilots, were trained. Chappie James, America’s first black four-star Air Force general, was one of them.

Because of segregation, black pilots were refused training at air bases throughout the United States. An air field and a $4-million training complex were built at Tuskegee so that whites “could be spared” being quartered or trained with blacks.

Of the 992 black cadets trained as Army Air Corps pilots, 450 flew combat missions against the Germans, chalking up a remarkable record; they destroyed 200 Nazi planes in aerial combat, damaged 148 others, sank a German destroyer and wiped out hundreds of military vehicles.

“Many of our students come here because their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents went to school at Tuskegee,” said John J. Johnson, 46, director of public information. “Some are the first in their families to go beyond high school.

“Why go to a predominantly black school? They come here because of Tuskegee’s academic excellence and prestige during the past 104 years. They come because as blacks they have a better chance for leadership roles in a predominantly black school.

“They are more relaxed here, more comfortable than at a university or college where they are a minority.”

Susann Smith, 20, a biology major from Bermuda and president of the 500-member international student association, said she went to Auburn University for a short time and did not feel comfortable as a minority student.

Desiree Allen, 20, a sophomore from Carson, Calif., graduated from Banning High School, then spent a year at Cerritos College. “I came to Tuskegee because I wanted a change of pace,” she said. She plans to be a social worker and expects to enroll at UCLA next fall.

Napoleon Howard IV, 18, of Detroit, came to Tuskegee “because a couple of my teachers in high school graduated from TI and liked it very much. I have a great-grandfather who went to school here and helped build some of the buildings.

“This is an old-fashioned place in a rural setting. I love it. The school is not only predominantly black, so is the town of Tuskegee and the surrounding countryside. (The school is in Macon County, which has an 85% black population.)”

For Donna Pilot, 21, of Chicago, student body president and a senior mechanical engineer major, Tuskegee Institute “in terms of overall education is better not only academically but culturally as I see it. Tuskegee gave me an opportunity to enroll in a pre-engineering program the summer after I graduated from high school.

“Since I have been here, as part of my major I have spent three summers working in the engineering field for Caterpillar Tractor in Peoria, Ill., and two semesters working for General Motors in Pontiac, Mich.

“Companies come to Tuskegee to recruit minorities. The business world appreciates the caliber of people graduating from Tuskegee.”