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Beck Honors Civil Rights Pioneer Booker T. Washington in Latest Oval Office Speech

Glenn Beck Pays Tribute to Pioneer Civil Rights Activist Booker T. Washington in Oval Office Speech

For the last month, Glenn Beck has been delivering the kinds of speeches he believes President Obama should have done since taking office. This Wednesday evening, the topic focused on the contributions of Civil Rights pioneer, Booker T. Washington, who believed that through establishing industry, practicing thrift and investments, owning property and developing intelligence through education, members of the black community could lift themselves out of the degradation they suffered in the worst moments of the segregation-era and realize their full civil rights.

Beck chose the lessons of Booker T. Washington to highlight the Declaration of Independence passage which states: “All men are created equal, [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” This means that God endows man with rights.

Believing that it is the “duty of America” to defend those rights, Beck also noted that Booker T. Washington knew that civil rights are “not bestowed by man” and are also “earned.” And they are earned not once in a generation, but “every day, by “every generation.”

“Every American must understand that the strength and durability of their civil rights —  all of us — depend on what we do with our life,” Beck said.

“That’s how this country became great. That’s how black Americans won what was their right. And that is how we will see better tomorrow. Much, much better than today.”

Watch Beck’s latest Oval Office speech below.

For those unfamiliar, Booker T. Washington began his life in 1856 in what was considered at the time to be one of the lowest rungs of society. His mother was a slave and his father was a white plantation owner. Somehow, despite the tribulations his day and age presented, he lifted himself out of inequity and grew to become a leader in the very first Civil Rights movement, fighting Jim Crow laws and eventually founding the Tuskegee Institute. Indeed, Booker T. Washington was the predecessor and inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr. and set the tone for Civil Rights across the country.

Comments (51)

  • Cruelnunusual
    Posted on May 18, 2012 at 2:31am

    I can‘t believe I haven’t been kicked off of here, yet. That’s new. I still think all you fellow white people are wasting your time holding up black heroes. Black people will never admire yours.

    Report Post » Cruelnunusual  
  • TheSoberEye
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:37pm

    I remember back in the early 90′s when my wife and I visted our son who was stationed at Ft.Benning Georgia, I wanted to take a side trip to the Tuskegee Institute to see Mr. Washingtons lab. As we were driving down one of the streets on campus I could not help but notice that many of the students were watching us with open expressions of amazement. This was due primarily to the lack of White visitors to the campus, in my opinion. When after reaching our destination and looking around a man came up to us and said that they didn’t get many vistors that looked like us. I told him that it was too bad they didn’t. Mr. Washington was a Christian, as is my wife and I. We just wanted to visit where our brother in Christ worked. All in all, it was a fun trip.

    Report Post » TheSoberEye  
  • h-schoolmom
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:20pm

    My 8th grade daughter and I just read the autobiography of Booker T. Washington “Up From Slavery”. It was an absolutely fantastic book, and should be required reading for every student in America. Mr. Washington’s life is the epitome of American exceptionalism.

    Report Post »  
  • MySacredHonor
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 10:50am

    The entire narrative that the political parties changed sides is BS. for instance, in 1948 there were 35 “Dixiecrats” left the dems when they backed civil rights, and everyone says they went to the Republicans. BS…they created a third party, and lost the election then went back to the dems. only one actually changed parties permanently, Strom Thurman, and he seemed to have had a legitimate change of heart on race. while the hard core racists all went back to the dems… in fact i can’t find a single other “Dixicrat” that didn’t go back to the dems… And LBJ signed the civil rights act only after killing it as Majority leader in the senate 5 times under Eisenhower… and when he did sign it, he was quoted as saying “I’ll have those n*****s voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” oh yea… LBJ cared about blacks… RIGHT!!!!!

    Report Post » MySacredHonor  
  • Individualism
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 7:24am

    is that a major accomplishment for the alcoholic?

    Report Post » Individualism  
    • techengineer11
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 8:34am

      Beck is so awesome! He’s the best rodeo clown ever! He even loves people of color and promotes a more diverse pluralistic America.. Who would have ever dreamed such a prominent Media personality would come along and advocate such a noble cause?

      Glenn can I kiss your ring? You’re the man! We love you Glenn! You‘re on God’s side! God really loves you Glenn and appreciates the awesome work that you are doing… especially that protecting his chosen stuff.. That just drives God up the wall Glenn.. He told me that he couldn’t wait for you to get to heaven so.. ice cream and m&ms galore for his premier rodeo clown… Love you Glenn! Keep up the fight!
      You really are a Unviersalist Glenn.. Great guy you are.. No one could do it better Glenn.. Really.

      Truly Glenn. You’re off the chain. There will obviously have to be a special place in Heaven for you and the Beck family.

      In case you were in doubt Glenn your good works don’t go unoticed. You’re awesome! A bomb! Nobody does it better than Glenn Beck. ;) Of course that‘s why the puppeteers applaud and pay the big bucks isn’t it Glenn? God speed my little buddy.

      Report Post » techengineer11  
    • JRook
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 9:53am

      “Glenn Beck has been delivering the kinds of speeches he believes President Obama should have done since taking office” There appears to be no end to GB’s arrogance. I’m sure individuals like Booker T would rather GB not use him to provide a symbolic offset to his usual feeding the angry mob stuff. It‘s not that Booker T’s message is wrong or outdated. It’s that one can trace the decline in the potential for implementing his recommendations to the decline in the inner cities and rural America. Is there confusion why Miss., LA and WV are the poorest states. Doesn’t appear their conservative social and fiscal policies have done much for those states.

      Report Post »  
    • techengineer11
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 11:15am

      JRook: With all due respect your analysis is not even worthy of human consumption.

      There’s a reason why Africa is well Africa and that America was well America up until about a century ago. And there’s a reason why America is becoming as Africa today.

      Demographics!

      Remember that Haiti was the paradise of the tropics; the richest most beautiful Island there was according to some but today? Can you not see the simply correlation? Seriously accept the reality and stop blaming others for your people’s absolute failure as a race.

      Report Post » techengineer11  
  • Godrulz
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 6:22am

    GODRULZ, SPEAK YOUR MIND
    I did, and it seems to have disappeared.

    Report Post » Godrulz  
  • Godrulz
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 6:20am

    Well, we’ve gone from Booker T to Ice T, and all the way down to Obama.

    Report Post » Godrulz  
  • Macman1138
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 5:23am

    Why?

    Report Post » Macman1138  
  • lukerw
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:04am

    Civil Rights Legislation was/is a DISASTER… because it made a permanent Minority of Racial Group… preventing assimulation into American Culture!

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • lukerw
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 7:10am

      Only GOD could change the Past/History… and if HE did not… what happened was for a Reason!

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • The Third Archon
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:40am

    Washington is pretty cool, but

    W.E.B. DuBois > Booker T. Washington

    Report Post » The Third Archon  
  • IDONTTHINKSO
    Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:38am

    I was a poor kid and lived close to what we called the ridge, that’s where the colored people lived in our town. In the late 60’s I did a book report on him and I believe this is one of the most dead on quotes from any man that ever lived. And is especially true now for some we know! “There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the ***** race before the public. Some of these people do not want the ***** to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well.” So true! Don’t you think!

    Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 7:07am

      LBJ’s Civil Rights Laws… did exactly that: Created a Problem worse than the Problem to be Solved, resulting in people living upon Entitlements & Grants given by Government through a Political Party, as if Buying Votes.

      Report Post » lukerw  
  • Cruelnunusual
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:36pm

    You think you’re going to get points for this, Glenn? You’re not, because 98% of blacks will ALWAYS hate you for your white skin. Booker Washington didn’t care about “civil rights”, he cared about power for his race. If he was here, he’d hate you, too. Blacks don’t see you as good, they see you as weak lol. I noticed your people have been deleting my comments because you are afraid of the truth. You live in a fantasy world where, for the first time in history, people are supposed to come together in a diverse society, and forego dominance for their own race, and you can’t handle someone pointing that out to you. Spare me your quest for truth, you can’t handle the truth.

    Report Post » Cruelnunusual  
    • NOTAMUSHROOM
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:20am

      “Power for his race?”

      Seriously? What is his race?

      Answer: half white, half black

      He must have been as completely ATFC as OBlahblah.

      Question: why did he see himself as a victim?

      Report Post »  
    • I.Swear.By.My.Life.and.My.Love.of.it
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:30am

      Calm down Jack. The point is not about points nor is the context of his speech directed toward black admiration.

      Report Post » I.Swear.By.My.Life.and.My.Love.of.it  
    • RebelPatriot
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:48am

      You just made the statement that 98 percent of the black community are racist. They will hate Beck for the color of his skin.

      And we thought we were the only racist in town.

      Report Post »  
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:43am

      WASHINGTON, A BLACK MILITANT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      DAMN, that’s some 1984-level revisionist history. You deserve either a medal for ignorance, or a medal for historical storytelling, because THAT is one DELICIOUSLY TWISTED reading of history.

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
    • Cruelnunusual
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 10:46am

      “Seriously? What is his race?” Seriously, his race was black. Whites don’t accept people like him as white. That’s why they move away in DROVES.

      And “revisionism”? Oh, I’m certain that if I expected to be included equally into Chinese or Japanese or Mexican or arab or persian society, etc, that I would be. Not. So I guess Washington was looking to pry his way into white society, wasn’t he? Which means he wanted power for blacks, which means that today he wouldn’t be satisfied to simply be invited to dinner, he would want your children to pay taxes and forego opportunity to give his race more advantage. Which would make him just another black supremacist. But go ahead and kiss his butt if it makes you feel good.

      Report Post » Cruelnunusual  
  • Cruelnunusual
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:21pm

    Beck is completely wasting his time lauding his black heroes. Blacks will never like him, never appreciate his efforts, they will only continue their supremacist beliefs on behalf of their people, and they will only see him as weak and be further encouraged to browbeat him and call him a disingenuine racist. All people are racist and have been since the beginning of time, with the exception of white people over the last 45 years. Your accommodation and guilt and desire for equity will be seen as mere WEAKNESS. Go ahead and cleanse my comments, now.

    Report Post » Cruelnunusual  
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:54am

      So you recognize that we can CHOOSE to be racist or not, why then is it not a superior form of life if we all CHOOSE NOT to be racist? Are you afraid of what you might lose in the gamble? Why? To lose something in pursuit of that which you KNOW is good, is no lose at all. You fear the loss of something which you will lose in the end anyway–even your very life is but borrowed, and shall be returned to its proper owner in the fullness of time. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, when you love and seek to know the good. It dominates you, and you can love nothing else, and in your commitment to the good, you are victorious, and your victory cannot be taken away from you. If you vouchsafe your attainments not in the self, which is transient, or the things of the self, but in the good, then you have placed your love in something immortal; your actions in pursuit of the good are eternal, they cannot be undone, and so victory and defeat are solely upon you to choose, and you can be invincible to evil solely in the will to good.

      In a world where racism is the expectation, all are racist–you create the reality you imagine, you are at once free to decide your destiny, and bound to your destiny by your actions. Have the courage to use your own reason, and let no one be your master. There is no promise, from God or nature, that a virtuous life would be easy, but that which is easy to obtain is rarely worth even the meager effort.

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
  • BobtheMoron
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:15pm

    I did not realize that Booker T. Washington was half white and I’m from Alabama. One need only look at the picture to see that he is like Obama, half white. They taught me everything about the man except that he was biracial. Guess they didn’t talk about such things back then. That fact explains a great deal about the man.

    Report Post » BobtheMoron  
  • TrueSoundsOfLiberty
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:56pm

    Why so few comments here? Oh I know, it’s because everyone else is reading other “stories” and spewing racism in the comments section.

    Report Post » TrueSoundsOfLiberty  
    • Cruelnunusual
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:57pm

      It must be satisfying to occupy your lofty perch of self righteousness. You don’t care about racism, or you’d notice everybody on the planet is racist. They always have been, too. Haven’t you noticed that multi-culturalism is a brand new idea, adopted in this country a mere 45 years ago? And that no other race is practicing it? Or are you denying that’s the case? So…if I’m a white racist, I’m in good company, aren’t I, with ALL our Founding Fathers, heroes, and ancestors? You, meanwhile, are embarked on a utopian adventure, with the result being more crime, destroyed cities, white flight, rotten schools, and a fading white community whose culture is being ripped up. What a success. I guess I’m not as deep and enlightened as you, because to me it just looks like I have to lock all my doors now, and make sure I stay in my “good” neighborhood. I guess all those inner cities are actually great, along with the freeloader housing developments they made sure they built near all our “good” neighborhoods. Because to a neanderthal like me, it just seems like it sucks a whole lot.

      Report Post » Cruelnunusual  
  • Seldon75
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:44pm

    Booker T. Washington was the first black man invited to dine in the White House. And who was the President who had the courage to do this, because it caused a huge outrage in the South? That’s right, Progressive Teddy Roosevelt.

    Report Post »  
  • moussiagilda
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:57pm

    If Glenn Beck isn’t your sole reason to live, then you have some understanding of the genuine worth of life. Live for everything, not for one thing. Everyone dance the maxixe and the turkey trot for Glenn Beck. Without music.

    Report Post »  
  • TheReasonableLib
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:42pm

    How conveniently Beck and you other Blazers forget that it wasn’t the methods of Booker T; quiet acceptance of society’s ills and trying to prove yourself but the boycotts, speeches & marches of “socialists” like MLK, Bayard Rustin, and the NAACP that finally forced the government to do something about segregation. Why do you people try so hard to rewrite history?

    Report Post »  
    • mrunner
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:02pm

      How conveniently you did not mention that the Jim Crowe laws were put in place by Democrats- and that true civil rights would have been attained, much sooner and naturally, if the Democrats had not obstructed every attempt until legislation was finally jammed down their throats in the 60′s. Just another ******* with no acceptance of history or reality.

      Report Post »  
    • encinom
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:31pm

      Of course you forget to mention that after the Democratic President, LBJ sign the Civil Rights Act, the GOP lead by Nixon sought out and courted the disgruntled racists to join with the Republicans.

      Report Post »  
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:03am

      Also, didn’t mention the Democratic switch to Nixon FOLLOWING the Civil Rights Act. It’s no historical secret that the bases of the modern Republican and Democrat parties were once almost completely reversed. The Republican Party came into existence in opposition to the Democrat-Republican Party, which had been shortened to just “the Democrat Party,” during the turbulent election immediately preceding the Civil War. During and immediately following the Civil War, the Republican Party (called the Union Party for a period of this time due to absorption of another party) enjoyed the support of most if not all blacks who could vote as well as abolitionists and northerners, while Democrats largely enjoyed the support of the Southern pro-slavery vote that, yes, was ALSO pro-segregation when slavery was no longer an option. After Reconstruction ended, which is also when blacks were abandoned by the Republican Party, yes, this same Democrat Party did indeed institute a system of segregation and racialized second-class citizenship which we now colloquially refer to as “Jim Crow.” However, a hundred years (and several generations) later, the polity looked a little different. And with the passage of the Civil Rights Act by the NEW Democrat Party, the old “Blue Dogs” Democrats by tradition and out of line with the new principles of the Party, left the Party for the Republican Party, while the Democrat Party became the preferred party of black voters.

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:04am

      Also, you know why.

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
    • UnreconstructedLibertarian
      Posted on May 18, 2012 at 9:44am

      To be historicly accurate, the Radical Republicans of the post WBTS era were equally guilty of Jim Crowe. All one has to do is look at the Reconstructed Constitutions of the Southern States, pleny of segregational constitutional provisions in there. Particularly anti-mecegenation constitutional language. If you care to dig into the whole facts, former Confederates and known Democrats at the time were legislatively disfranchised from voting either on the new Constitutions or in elections of any kind, in many states these people weren’t allowed to vote again until 1871. Former Confederates were banned from elected office at any level of government by the 14h Amendment to the US Constitution, unless pardoned by the US Congress in a 2/3 majority. Therefore, if any former Confederate was involved in Jim Crow at a leadership level, it was at the behest of a Radical Republican US Congress.

      Glenn’s famous “gun control’ law that banned blacks from owning firearms, was a Radical Republican law written in 1866 – as the state in question was still under martial law following the war. I am not excusing the Democrats and what they did post-Reconstruction. However, it is more correctly understood as the textbook example of “blowback” for being disfranchised and their state budgets raped by puppet administrations – blacks who were scapegoated by the Republicans – for the purpose of executing their fiscal schemes.

      Report Post » UnreconstructedLibertarian  
    • UnreconstructedLibertarian
      Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:34pm

      I grew up during the Dixiecrat conversion, people equate that change with the Civil Rights Act only – but that isn’t wholly true. The “Great Society” was crammed down their throats at the same time. The southern voter bloc has always been conservative majority first – party affiliation second. The arguments I heard around the “craker barrels” of the old country stores at the time were in relation to Welfare, Medicare, and what those programs would do to the Federal budget once fully implemented.

      Those old men were right then, they are right now – and if still living would see the culmination of their fiscal fears. Yet, no Republican has changed anything about it either – only furthered it. The same can be said about the current dilemma of Obamacare – all talk but no repeal. The Dixiecrat conversion of the late 60′s separated the fiscally liberal Democrats from the fiscally conservative Democrats – then armed the socially liberal ones with the baseball bat of racism to keep the money-train rolling toward the cliff. This has broken the back of the Democrat party in the South – right on into the present day when Civil Rights for blacks isn’t even a real issue.

      If you track southern voting by fiscal conservatism (and performance thereof) you can see plainly where they’ve been – and where they’re going. Social issues have been used to fracture fiscal conservatism into untenable positions, in both parties, to keep the money train rolling.

      Report Post » UnreconstructedLibertarian  
  • Eleutheria
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:09pm

    The physical and ideological resemblance between Glenn and Booker T. is really quite striking.

    Report Post » Eleutheria  
    • rangerp
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:15pm

      he was about as anti socialism as they come.

      Report Post » rangerp  
    • jhaydeng
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:29pm

      Booker T was a cog in the civil rights movement! Why is this man not mentioned in school on a daily basis? He was colorless in beliefs! I can only hope that my children would strive to be like him!

      Report Post »  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:00pm

      JHAYDENG, I grew up and attended most of my earlier schooling in Alabama. And, I started school in 1959. We often studied Booker T. Washington any time the classes were on State History. Even then in my part of the south his name was spoken with reverence.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
  • TEARS FOR AMERICA
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:58pm

    An honorable man…and I have to believe that he did not despise whites like many are taught today- that the white man is the problem, when in truth, it is self-depravity, hatred and immoral entitlements rather than hard work that keep men downtrodden.

    Report Post » TEARS FOR AMERICA  
  • recoveringneocon
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:55pm

    What;s with the “Oval Office”, and headlines like “Glenn Beck Now Ranks No. 23 on Forbes‘ World’s Most Powerful Celebrities List” …….. someones ears are looking very small

    Report Post » recoveringneocon  
  • encinom
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:55pm

    Will Beck issue an apology to Elizabeth Warren for his slanderous opening statements? Mrs. Warren is 1/32nd Cherokee, the same percentage as Bill John Baker, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Or is the man the Cherokee Nation elected to be its principal chief not enough of an indian for Beck?

    Report Post »  
    • Psychosis
      Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:34pm

      prove it

      oh thats right ……………………….no evidence

      Report Post » Psychosis  
    • RebelPatriot
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 12:55am

      That’s funny 1/32. My wife’s mother is Colombian, does that make my children more Spanish than this woman is Native American Indian? Would they be 1/8 Hispanic?

      I guess my little Gringo looking Spanish children shouldn’t be ashamed to recieve their entitlements.

      Report Post »  
    • encinom
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 10:23am

      Psychosis, like a typicla Beckerhead you are given facts and that counter the teaching of your cult messiah and you stick your fingers in your ears.

      Report Post »  
  • junior1971
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:55pm

    This is the way black people thought before these worthless marxists came along to drive them into submission. It really started to take effect in the early sixties when the media began to socially engineer society through the advancements that we the people envisioned and realized as a direct result of our freedom. Remember this man and know that we are all a product of our environment and that environment has been corrupted intentionally by those who claim to be our champions. Resist we much!

    Report Post » junior1971  
  • toomuchgovt
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:50pm

    “I have great faith in the power and influence of facts. It is seldom that anything is permanently gained by holding back a fact.” Booker T. Washington

    A True American Forgotten Hero.

    Report Post » toomuchgovt  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:42pm


    If Booker T. Washington had a Son, he would look just like Barack Hussein Obama.
    Joking aside, honestly, there’s quiet a resemblance.

    Report Post »  
    • pitboss711
      Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:13am

      Actually, I liked him best when he was with the MG’s. :))

      Report Post » pitboss711  

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