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    Such was the fame of Booker T. Washington that few Americans fail to recognize his name. A powerful leader in education, he headed up the Tuskegee Institute. But Booker T. was not born into choice circumstances. In fact, he was born a slave. In his autobiography, Up From Slavery, he shares an experience that made a profound impact on his character and which helped shape his ways.

    “The most trying ordeal that I was forced to endure as a slave boy . . . was the wearing of a flax shirt. In the portion of Virginia where I lived, it was common to use flax as part of the clothing for slaves. That part of the flax from which our clothing was made was largely the refuse, which of course was the cheapest and roughest part.

“I saw the tears of the oppressed — and they have no comforter...”

“I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time. It is almost equal to the feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh . . . But I had no choice. I had to wear the flax shirt or none . . .

    “My brother John, who is several years older than I am, performed one of the most generous acts that I have ever heard of one slave relative doing for another. On several occasions when I was being forced to wear a new flax shirt, he generously agreed to put it on in my stead and wear it for several days, till it was ‘broken in.’”