1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [133]
Washington, Booker T. (1856–1915) Born a slave and impoverished after emancipation, Washington nevertheless managed to acquire an education, become a teacher, and, in 1881, gain appointment to head a newly established vocational school for blacks in Alabama. He transformed Tuskegee Institute into the center of black education in the United States. Washington believed that economic opportunity was more important to black progress than social equality, and he was willing to forgo (at least temporarily) the latter to achieve the former. This so-called “accommodationist” position was appealing to many whites, but alienated many younger black activists (most notably W. E. B. du Bois), who refused to settle for less than complete equality. Despite this, Washington was widely regarded as the voice of black America from 1895 until his death.
Washington, George (1732–1799) This Virginia planter turned soldier then national leader richly deserved the title frequently given him: Father of His Country. As a young Virginia militia colonel, Washington fought in the first battles of the French and Indian War, was active in the independence movement, and was chosen by the Continental Congress to lead the newly formed Continental Army. He was overall commander of the American military effort during the revolution. Victorious, he could have become king or dictator, but chose instead to retire to his beloved plantation, Mount Vernon, until he was called on to preside over the Constitutional Convention and then to become first president of the United States under the new Constitution. He served two terms, from 1789 to 1797, in effect creating the office of the chief executive even as he led the nation through its infancy.
Washington, Harold (1922–1987) While in his second term in the U.S. Congress, Washington agreed to run for mayor of Chicago in 1983, defeating in the Democratic primary incumbent Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley, son of the late long-time mayor, Richard J. Daley. He then went on to defeat the white Republican challenger in the general election, in which voters turned out in record numbers. Washington faced much opposition in the mostly white City Council, but he was nevertheless elected to a second term. He died in office seven months into that term.
Watson, James D. (1928– ) During the early 1950s, this Chicago-born geneticist and biophysicist worked in England with Francis Crick on the puzzle of DNA structure. In 1953, Watson made the breakthrough discovery that the principal DNA components were linked in pairs. This insight led him and Crick to establish the double helix molecular model for DNA, which quickly gave rise to an explanation of how the molecule encodes and transmits genetic information. Watson and Crick (with Maurice Wilkins) shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Watson, John B. (1878–1958) In his 1913 essay “Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It,” Watson defined psychology as the science of human behavior, which could and should be studied in the laboratory with scientific rigor—just as one would study the behavior of animals. Watson went on in other works to codify behaviorism as the objective experimental study of the relation between environmental stimuli and human behavior. This approach dominated psychology in America throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
Watson, Thomas J., Sr. (1874–1956) In 1924, Watson, who was president of CTR (Computing Tabulating Recording Company), a maker of tabulating machines, renamed his firm IBM—International Business Machines—and began to lead the company’s rise to the position of world’s leading maker of innovative electromechanical calculating devices, collation and sorting machines, typewriters, and other machines for business. In 1940, IBM participated in the development of the Mark I, considered the first modern programmable computer.
Wayne, “Mad Anthony” (1745–1796) A brilliant American commander during the American Revolution—his boldness suggested by his nickname—Wayne’s military masterpiece came after independence