Booker T. Washington

“According to the name on the front door I would be Booker T. Washington, Headmaster at Tuskegee Institute. I assume you have an appointment?”

—Booker T. Washington, Mario's Time Machine

Booker Taliaferro Washington, more commonly known as Booker T. Washington, was an American professor and social activist for African Americans in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was also the composer of the Atlanta compromise, a compromise that sought to give basic education and the right to due process to black people in exchange for them not demanding any further social progress or equality. Washington was also the founder and first leader of the Tuskegee Institute, a university in Tuskegee that gave a higher education to its entirely black student body. In Mario's Time Machine, Mario meets him after traveling back in time to Tuskegee circa 1915.

History

Mario's Time Machine

According to Mario's Time Machine, Booker T. Washington was working in his office in Tuskegee when he first meets Mario. Mario introduces himself and asks him who he is. Washington promptly tells him his name while also pointing out that it was written on the door that Mario walked through, and then asks him if he has an appointment. Mario tells him no, but proceeds to ask him he knows about the Crank Handle in his possession. Washington replies that he does not while also pointing him in the direction of Henry Ford, as he thinks that the handle looks like it belongs to an automobile. He also asks him to return a Tire to Ford, as he and his laboratory have finished their experiments (despite Booker T. Washington and Henry Ford having never interacted or even met in real life). Mario asks him about the tests, and Washington talks about how they are testing certain plants, such as the peanut and the goldenrod, and they have discovered that rubber can be extracted from the goldenrod (again, this is despite Ford and his team running these tests several years after Washington had already died). Washington comments that George Washington Carver was the one who discovered this, and he goes on to talk about how Carver was the first "man of color" to receive master’s degree in agriculture (although there are no sources for that). He also praises Carver as a genius and how he invited him in 1896 after Carver had graduated from Iowa State College. Mario asks Washington why Carver chose the Tuskegee Institute, and Washington explains that Carver saw an opportunity to help black individuals, and he also says that Carver created a "School on Wheels" that drove to farmers and taught them how to improve. Mario asks what he specifically taught, but Washington says that he cannot properly explain this to Mario without one of Carver's paintings. Mario soon gives the Painting to Washington, and he excitedly explains that Carver wants to teach them how the soil in the land is important and how, by taking care of it, it allows its users to remain healthy. Mario then asks if his School on Wheels program is working, and he replies that "apparently," the "Department of Agriculture" may spread the program to the entire nation, and how, by planting peanuts, the South may become rich.