Introduction – The Three Documents

The three documents I want you to read and/or browse provide a picture of early efforts to establish a robust agricultural and extension education system. Don’t be alarmed by the number of pages in these documents. You have all the time you need this semester to read/scan them. The books may have a lot of pages, but the pages are one-half the size of a regular sheet of paper.

The first is the Country Life Commission Report by Liberty Hyde Bailey. This comprehensive report, commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt, aimed to examine the rural situation and find a way to improve agriculture. It builds a strong case for the need for Extension and agricultural education. It is one of the earliest prominent vision documents for sustainable agriculture. Liberty Hyde Bailey was a horticulturist by training and a social reformer. He was one of the earliest proponents of rural sociology and social reform. And as you will see, he was an excellent writer.

Booker Washington

Up From Slavery is a 1901 autobiography by Booker T Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. I should say that this is his second autobiography. The first one did not satisfy him, so he prepared the second and entitled it Up From Slavery. Washington was a controversial figure even in his own time period. Several of his contemporaries, including WEB Du Bois, criticized him for his approach to normalizing race relations between blacks and whites. During his lifetime, Washington secured funding for the Tuskegee Institute and built it into what eventually became Tuskegee University. We will discuss Tuskegee at length in another class later in the semester, but I want you to tackle his autobiography and give it some of your time and attention. I recognize that it is a lengthy book, but it is a small book, so the pages are small, and the reading is easy. In particular, I would like you to pay attention to how he developed the educational program at Tuskegee. In some ways, his established program is an earlier version of the present-day agricultural education program. Washington was more than a school principal; he was also an extension educator. We’re going to discuss Washington in a later class, but in this book, you will see how he began to develop his ideas about Extension. If your time is limited, I recommend reading chapters 7, 8, 10, And 14. The Atlanta exposition address he discusses in chapter 14 galvanized the nation and, depending upon who you ask, either improved race relations or set them back significantly. You be the judge.

You have two options for your final reading this week. You may read the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 or the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. Hoke Smith, former governor and senator from Georgia, was the key senate leader who pushed both of these bills through to passage. Smith understood senate rules and “how to play the political game.” Most people do not realize that Smith did not want education legislation passed before the Extension bill became law. He felt that Extension was an immediate need and should come first. He held up the passage of education legislation until 1916, then became the namesake of the education bill he had held back for years!

Why read the Acts? It’s simple, most people talk about Smith-Lever and Smith-Hughes, but few understand what they said or did. We will discuss these acts in more detail later but get ahead of the game by reading them now. Choose the one that is most relevant to you.

That’s it. Go forth and read and enjoy. The three documents await you below.

60-Minute Assignment this Week
This week, I’d like you to work collectively to create a biographical sketch of one of these four people:

Liberty Hyde Bailey
Booker Washington
Hoke Smith
Asbury Lever (Extension) or Dudley Hughes (Education)

Here’s what you do: Do some research, find two interesting facts about one of these individuals, and place them in the DropBox Paper document at the link below. Here’s the kicker – you can’t use a fact that someone else has already posted. So I recommend that you move quickly so that you don’t have to dig too deep to find something that someone hasn’t already added to the document. Ready, set. go!

Here is the DropBox Paper link. The following is information about how DropBox Paper works.

About DropBox Paper…
Dropbox Paper is a collaborative document editing and sharing tool developed by Dropbox. It allows you to create, edit, and collaborate on documents in real-time. Dropbox Paper is designed for team collaboration, enabling the whole class to work on a document simultaneously. You can comment on specific document sections and communicate and collaborate among team members. Dropbox Paper is accessible through web browsers and mobile apps, enabling you to work on documents from your phone, tablet, or computer. There is no fee and no need to sign up for Dropbox. If you have any problems, please email me at dbcroom@uga.edu.

You can find the other weekly topics, the syllabus, and assignments by clicking on the buttons on the top right hand corner of this page.