"When I'm through with this floor...
they're going to know that Booker T. Washington mopped it."

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"So many quotes have been written like etched granite in my mind but only in the "Spirit" of the quote which shapes my life and values. Often times I have I'm sure mangled the original quotation and "re-written" it in my head to extract the spirit or quality from the quote that I find important. One was a quote of the great American Negro educator of the 19th century, Booker T. Washington. I'm thinking it was a quote I once heard Bob Proctor give at a seminar I perhaps watched on DVD. I searched in vain on the Internet to find it (which I see most likely came from his autobiography "Up From Slavery") - and the closest I found as to where it may have come from was his arrival at the Hampton Institute which I copied and pasted below. The quote as it is in my mind (though perhaps not exact) is this:

"When I'm through with this floor they're going to know that Booker T. Washington mopped it."

This is one of my all-time favorite inspired quotes. Why? Compare in Walace Wattles "The Science of Getting Rich" (1910) where in Chapter 12 called "Efficient Action" he says to succeed you must "More than fill your place".

"The world is advanced only by those who more than fill their present places. If no man quite filled his present place, you can see that there must be a going backward in everything.

Do not try to more than fill your present place with a view to pleasing your employer; do it with the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the faith and purpose of increase during work hours, after work hours, and before work hours. Hold it in such a way that every person who comes in contact with you, whether foreman, fellow workman, or social acquaintance, will feel the power of purpose radiating from you; so that every one will get the sense of advancement and increase from you. Men will be attracted to you, and if there is no possibility for advancement in your present job, you will very soon see an opportunity to take another job.

There is a Power which never fails to present opportunity to the Advancing Man who is moving in obedience to law. God cannot help helping you, if you act in a Certain Way; He must do so in order to help Himself....In order to receive his own when it shall come to him, man must be active; and this activity can only consist in more than filling his present place."

This is exactly what Booker T. did. And one of the reasons he succeeded.

Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American educator, orator, author. His mother, Jane, was an enslaved black woman who worked as a cook and his father was an unknown white plantation owner. Jane was the slave of James Burroughs, a small farmer in Virginia and Under the laws of the time, his mother's status meant that Booker was born a slave.

And then....

"Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper -- the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see."

In 1872, Washington quit his job in the Ruffners' home. He left for the Hampton Institute. The Hampton Institute was more than 300 miles from Malden, West Virginia, where he lived. To get there, Washington walked, hitched buggy rides from other travelers, and sometimes jumped railroad cars. Hungry and without money, Washington stopped in Richmond, Virginia, and worked on a ship until he had saved a little money.

He arrived in Hampton, Virginia, dirty and tired. He had no friends and little money. When he reached the Hampton Institute, he went in and found Miss Mackie, the head teacher. She looked at his appearance. Quickly she decided he was not the kind of student Hampton wanted. But she did not tell him to leave. So Washington stayed. About an hour later, she told him one of the classrooms needed to be swept. Washington went to work. He swept the room three times. He mopped the floor. He dusted all of the furniture. He washed the walls. When Miss Mackie came in the room was spotless! She instantly hired Washington as the school's janitor. This job let Washington work his way through the Hampton Institute. Besides working many hours each week, Washington also studied hard. He graduated from Hampton in 1875. He was proud of his success.

After graduation, Washington returned to West Virginia. He taught there only a short time. Then, he was offered a teaching position at Hampton. Gladly, he returned. He taught at Hampton until 1881, when Hampton's founder recommended him as the head of a new school beginning in Alabama -- the Tuskegee Institute.

He died on November 14, 1915 at the age of 59. His death was thought at the time to have been a result of congestive heart failure, aggravated by overwork. In March 2006, with the permission of his descendants, examination of medical records indicated that he died of hypertension, with a blood pressure more than twice normal, confirming what had long been suspected.

Washington's wealthy friends included Andrew Carnegie.

For his contributions to American society, Washington was granted an honorary master's degree from Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1901.

He was invited to the White House as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901

At the center of the campus at Tuskegee University, the Booker T. Washington Monument, called "Lifting the Veil," was dedicated in 1922

On April 7, 1940, he was depicted on a United States postage stamp and was also depicted on a U.S. Half Dollar from 1951-1954.

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"When I'm done with this piece of music,
they're going to know that Daniel Léo Simpson composed it"

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