The youth at the Juvenile Justice Center will celebrate Black History Month with Sarah Washington O’Neal Rush. Sarah is the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington
Tuesday, February 10th and Wednesday, February 11th
“Tell them that the sacrifice was not in vain. Tell them that by way of shop, the field, the skilled hand, habits of thrift and economy, by way of industrial school and college, we are coming. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up. Often through oppression, unjust discrimination, and prejudice, but through them we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence, and property, there is no power on earth that can permanently stay our progress.” – Booker T. Washington – From acceptance speech upon receiving honorary master’s degree from Harvard University in 1896.
Rush only learned the significance of her family history as an adult. Attaining this information helped to dramatically change her life. Today, through speeches, writing, discussions, book readings, and interviews, she is on a crusade to help others change their lives, and discover their own extraordinary legacies. To demonstrate to her audiences that they can achieve anything, she shares her story of growing up in Oakland as an “at-risk” youth. She often parallels her story with her great-grandfather’s story of rising above slavery to become a famous educator, the founder of Tuskegee University, and the first African-American invited to dine in the White House. Today Rush is an author, and she holds a master’s degree in professional psychology.
A man who overcame near-impossible odds himself, Booker T. Washington is best remembered for helping black Americans rise up from the economic slavery that held them down long after they were legally free citizens. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington
http://www.btwendreamcenter.com/index.html
