Guest Post: The Booker T. Washington National Monument

Jeff McConnell is back with another fabulous post about The Booker T. Washington National Monument!

I was coasting down a two lane in Virginia when I saw a marker for the Booker T. Washington National Monument. I’d never heard of it, so I followed the signs and got there about an hour before they closed.

What’s there are reconstructions of buildings that were there back in the 1850s, when Booker T. Washington, the founding President of Tuskegee Institute, was born into slavery on that farm. There are farm animals and vegetable gardens. All in all it’s a pleasant enough place to be, and at the same time it’s one of the few places I’ve been that’s wholly dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the crime that was slavery in our country.

The cabin in the photo was the kitchen for the main house and also home to Washington and his family. A life quite different from mine, to say the least.

I also ran into a bunch of kids, who scooped up one of the chickens that were running around and asked me to take their picture. So I did.