Hey y’all!
When I told my older sister that I went to Tuskegee today, she asked,
“Is that where Snuffaluffagus is from?”
No, I informed her, at least not to my knowledge (who knows really? Snuffaluffagi are mysterious creatures.) Tuskegee is home to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all African American infantry of fighter pilots who flew in WWII; and Tuskegee Institute, the university Booker T. Washington raised and where George Washington Carver taught for a large portion of his life.
Tuskegee is home to men who pushed the boundaries of what was possible for the black community through training and education and determination. They didn’t eradicate the walls, but they dented them, they made a difference in the world for the better, and that is why we remember them.
We started the day at the Tuskegee airfield where the Airmen trained–we watched a wonderfully made video that taught us the Airmen’s history, the meanings of the names “Redtails”(they painted the tails of their planes red) and the challenges they faced both at home with Jim Crow laws, and abroad with WWII. I had never heard of these men before today, at least not that I remember. Maybe they were mentioned in a history class, maybe I skimmed past them in a textbook–but I’d never learned about them like this, as in-your face and epic as the full sized Redtail plane hanging in the museum.
We moved on to Tuskegee Institute, where we toured Booker T. Washington’s house and touched the bricks on the wall, handmade by the students as part of their work-study program and as part of their trade classes. We learned of Booker T. Washington’s devotion to education–strong enough to compel him to walk 500 miles to go to a college that would accept him then working as a janitor to get into the school. While often criticized (especially in comparison to WEB DuBois) for being complacent and accommodating, he was strong and progressive in his own way. His philosophy for the Institute, “we ask for nothing that we can build for ourselves,” helped uplift blacks through education and practical determination. At his core, the conviction, “no man can drag me down so low as to make me hate him.”
Fun Fact: the house, called The Oaks, was built with short steps, short doorknobs, and lowered tables to accommodate Washington’s wife at the time, Margaret Murray Washington, who was 4’11.
Today was a day of learning so much I didn’t know.
Example: I had no idea who George Washington Carver was before today. But now he’s one of my character role models. He was an artist and also made huge strides in agriculture (including hundreds of uses for the peanut and teaching people about crop rotation), was wonderful to people and cared so deeply about him, and always had a fresh flower in his lapel. When asked why he never married, he said “how could I explain to a wife that I have to go out at 4:00 every morning to talk to the flowers?”
Example: from 1932-1972, Tuskegee Institute and what was the CDC at the time performed an extremely unethical study without the subjects’ knowledge or consent. It was called “Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”
I think that speaks for itself.
It was a hot day, a humid day, a long day walking around in the hot Alabama sun; but given how much I learned, I’d say it was worth it.
That’s all for now, this is Emily, signing off 🙂