The establishment of
the Booker Washington Agricultural & Industrial Institute of Liberia
was a dream come true for the late president of the Republic of
Liberia, Charles Dunbar Burgess King. During an official visit to
the united States of America in 1924, president King was asked by a
reporter to name any thing of significance that he would like to
take back to his country. The President said, " If it were possible
I would like to take Tuskegee Institute with me to Liberia." Even
though it was not physically possible to transplant Tuskegee
Institute of the United States to Liberia, President King's dream of
a Tuskegee type institution in Liberia was fulfilled in 1929. In
1924, the year in which President King visited the United States,
Ms. Olivia Phelps-Stokes, an American Philanthropist expressed her
desire to finance an educational institution somewhere in Africa to
be names in honor of Booker T. Washington, embracing the educational
philosophy of Booker T. Washington, that of educating the mind,
heart and hands. An educational concept, which involved theoretical
and practical concept of learning.
The Phelps-Stokes Foundation
was authorized to research the possibility of establishing an
institution in Africa to fulfill the desire of philanthropist Olivia
Phelps-Stokes. One of the researchers was James Longstreet Sibley,
who later became the first principal of the Booker Washington
Institute in Liberia. Researchers found out that president C. D. B.
King had expressed his desire to take Tuskegee Institute with him to
Liberia, which was founded on the educational philosophy of Booker
T. Washington, in whose honor Ms. Olivia Phelps-Stokes would like to
name the institution. Based upon the result of the study, Liberia
was the first country targeted for the establishment of a Tuskegee
type institution.
After few visits to Liberia by
the Phelps-Stokes delegation to negotiate with the Liberian
Government, amicable agreement was reached between Phelps-Stokes
Fund and the Republic of Liberia to establish the Booker Washington
Agricultural and Industrial Institute in Kakata, Liberia. The
agreement stipulated, among cardinal points, that the government of
the Republic of Liberia will donate land upon which the institution
would be built and US$5,000 per year for ten years and Phelps-Stokes
fund would budget an initial amount to finance beginning
construction.
In fulfillment of the commitment of the Government of Liberia
to the agreement, 1000 acres of land was donated in Kakata, 41 miles
from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. The Phelps-Stokes foundation
made an initial grant of $10,000. In March, 1929, ground was broken
in Kakata, where the Sibley Monument is presently located
establishing what we know today as the Booker Washington
Agricultural & Industrial Institute (BWI for short), our revere Alma
Mater. James Longstreet Sibley was named the first principal by the
then Board of Trustees.
