Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/72

 CHAPTER VIII

STRENUOUS DAYS

Booker Washington began the second year of his school, he met a new obstacle. That was nothing unusual for him, however. He was usually facing a hard job. He spent his life working on difficult tasks, and he never found one that he did not finish with satisfaction. He tackled this problem at once and with confidence.

There were two parts to it. In the first place, although he had a fine farm of five hundred acres all paid for, he had no buildings, except that old kitchen, stable, and henhouse, in which to house his students. When school opened in the fall of 1882, there were about one hundred and fifty students present. These three or four little old shacks would not take care of that crowd. What was he to do? This was his first difficulty.

His other problem was this. His school was just outside the town of Tuskegee. It adjoined the town. A great many people in Tuskegee thought that this school ought not to be built. Many were opposed to Booker Washington. Many were opposed to educating negroes, and they believed that negroes went to school simply to get out of work, and that an educated negro was 56