|
Tuskegee (〔See ("Pronunciation of Tuskegee." ) ''thefreedictionary.com.''. Retrieved: 3 October 2010.〕) is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 11,846. Tuskegee has been an important site in African-American history and highly influential in United States history since the 19th century. Before the American Civil War, the area was largely used as a cotton plantation, dependent on African-American slave labor. After the war, many freedmen continued to work on plantations in the rural area, which was devoted to agriculture. In 1881 the Tuskegee Normal School (now Tuskegee University, a historically black college) was founded and its director, Booker T. Washington developed a national reputation and philanthropic network to support education of freedmen and their children. In 1923, the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center was established here, initially for the estimated 300,000 African-American veterans of World War I in the South, when public facilities were racially segregated. Twenty-seven buildings were constructed on the 464-acre campus.〔("Tuskegee VA Medical Center Celebrates85 Years of Service" ), press release, Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS), 2008〕 The city was the subject of a notable civil rights case, ''Gomillion v. Lightfoot'' (1960), in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the state legislature had violated the Fifteenth Amendment in 1957 by redefining the city boundaries as a 28-sided figure that excluded nearly all black voters and residents, and none of the white voters or residents.〔 The city's boundaries were restored in 1961 after the ruling. ==History== The area was settled by European Americans in the 1830s after the Creek Native American tribes had been removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Pioneer planters brought or purchased African-American slaves to develop the rich soil for cotton plantations, as short-staple cotton was the chief commodity crop through the 19th century. Invention of the cotton gin at the end of the 18th century meant that this type of cotton could be processed profitably and it was adaptable to the upland areas. Designated as the county seat of rural Macon County, Tuskegee developed as its only city. Other communities are unincorporated. In 1881, the young Booker T. Washington was hired to develop the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers on the grounds of a former plantation. It was founded to train teachers for the segregated school system and freedmen for self-sufficiency. Washington established a work-study program by which students practiced skills and trades. Over the decades, the programs were expanded. This was later named the Tuskegee Institute. Graduate courses were added and it became Tuskegee University. Washington was known for his emphasis on education and self-improvement. The institute became known for stressing a practical education with work experience by students, to prepare them for the work available in the small towns and rural areas to which most would return.〔.〕 Teaching was a highly respected calling, as education was a major goal among the freedmen and their children. Washington believed that African Americans would achieve acceptance by southern whites when they had raised themselves.〔(Richard B. Sobol, "Reviewed Work: ''Gomillion versus Lightfoot: The Tuskegee Gerrymander Case'' by Bernard Taper" ), ''Columbia Law Review'' Vol. 62, No. 4 (Apr., 1962), pp. 748–751 〕 Washington led the school for decades, building a wide national network of white industrialist donors among some of the major philanthropists of the era, including George Eastman. At the same time, Washington secretly provided funding to the NAACP for its legal defense of some highly visible civil rights cases, including supporting challenges to southern states' discriminatory constitutions and practices that disenfranchised African Americans.〔(Richard H. Pildes, Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon, ''Constitutional Commentary'', vol.17, 2000, pp.13–14 ) Accessed 10 March 2008〕 Through the 1920s and 1930s, Washington worked with Julius Rosenwald and architects at the college to develop models for rural schools, to be used with Rosenwald's matching funds to gain construction of more rural schools for black children in the South. Beginning in 1932, the school was the site of the now-infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment (1932–1972), started to test treatments of the disease. With funding cut by the Great Depression, the Institute staff cut back on medications to treat the disease and studied the effects of untreated syphilis on patients and their partners. In addition, participants were not informed that treatment was available for their disease after antibiotics had been developed. One of the most famous teachers at Tuskegee was George Washington Carver, whose name is synonymous with innovative research into Southern farming methods and the development of hundreds of commercial products derived from regional crops, including peanuts and sweet potatoes. During World War II, Tuskegee and Tuskegee Institute were also home to the famed Tuskegee Airmen. This was the first squadron of African-American pilots trained in the U.S. Military for service in that war. The university in the 21st century is a center of excellence for African-American education. The heart of the university has been designated as a National Historic District and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Tuskegee VA Medical Center was opened in 1923, authorized by Congress. A total of 27 buildings were constructed on the 464-acre campus, which provided housing and a hospital to serve the needs of more than 300,000 African-American veterans in the South from World War I.〔 It attracted doctors from top schools, such as Dr. Toussaint Tourgee Tildon, a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He was one of the first six African-American doctors to work at the hospital; as director of the complex for 12 years (1946–1958), he achieved accreditation for a medical residency program at the hospital. He also worked to ensure accessibility for graduates to good medical positions in the federal government.〔(Elizabeth D. Schafer. "Tildon, Toussaint Tourgee" ), ''American National Biography Online,'' February 2003, published by Oxford University Press, Inc., copyright 2000 American Council of Learned Societies〕 By 1975, the hospital complex had 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tuskegee, Alabama」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|