In Character Building are 37 addresses that Booker T. Washington gave before students, faculty, and guests at the Tuskegee Institute. These addresses take the form of timeless advice on a number of subjects.
These talks are delivered - in the motivational and uplifting manner one would expect from this American icon - on education, ethics, morals, deportment, spirituality, and the dignity of labor. These short talks contain sage advice fit to focus the mind and heart toward the building up of self, while never relinquishing the personal responsibility we have to one another.
Booker T. Washington received criticism constantly from his contemporaries for being to conciliatory to whites regarding civil rights; however, the course of his life did reflect a man deeply concerned about the rights of Americans with African descent. Unfortunately, he was not credited for his efforts until shortly after his death in 1915.
