Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

Booker T. Washington was an African American educator and public figure. Born a slave on a small farm in Virginia, he worked his way through the Hampton Institute and became an instructor there. He was the first principal of the Tuskegee Institute, and under his management it became a successful center for practical education. A forceful and charismatic personality, he became a national figure through his books and lectures. Although his conservative views concerned many critics, he became the most important African American voice of his generation and had a vital influence on American culture.

Booker T. Washington was American educator, author, and leader in the African-American community. He served as head of Tuskegee Institute from 1881-1915.

Former slave and later president of Tuskegee Institute.

Booker T. Washington, the most prominent African American of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; founder of the Tuskegee Institute who urged Blacks to concentrate on economic self-advancement.

Founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for the education of young African Americans in 1881 in Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; served as its principal from 1881 to 1915.

Educator.

Booker T. Washington was Principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute "for the training of colored young men and women."

Washington founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Booker T. Washington was an educator and reformer, first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and the most influential spokesman for black Americans between 1895 and 1915.

Educator; b. Booker Taliaferro Washington.

Educator, writer, founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

American educator.

African American educator, social reformer, and president of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.

Noted black educator and head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

American educator, born a slave in Franklin Co., Va. Founder and president of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Ala. Spokesman for the conservative viewpoint among African Americans who favored self-improvement, industrial education, and acquiescence to segregation rather than agitation for more extensive civil and political rights.

African-American educator.

Booker T. Washington, the son of a slave and white father, was born on 1856 Apr. 5 in Franklin Co., Va. He worked in a salt furnace and coal mine at Malden, W.Va., and, at the same time, attended school. In 1872 he entered Hampton Institute, Va., where he earned his board by working as a janitor, and graduated in 1875. He was a school teacher at Malden from 1875-1877, and a student at Wayland Seminary, Washington, D.C., from 1877-1879. He taught at Hampton Institute, where he was in charge of the Indian dormitory and the night school.

In 1881 he was chosen to organize, at Tuskegee, Ala., a normal school chartered by the Ala. Legislature. Washington founded there the Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, now called Tuskegee University.

He soon became the foremost advocate of Negro education and was active as a public speaker on race relations, stressing industrial education and gradual adjustment rather than political and civil rights.

On 1915 Nov. 14 Washington died at Tuskegee.

Biographical Note

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was an African-American educator, writer and civil rights activist who was most famous for his founding of the Tuskegee Institute. He was born into slavery April 5 on the plantation of James Burroughs in Hale's Ford, Franklin County, Virginia. After the Emancipation Proclamation, Washington and his family moved to Malden, West Virginia, where he worked in a salt mine in the mornings and afternoons, attending elementary school in the interim hours. At seventeen, he was accepted into the Hampton Institute in Virginia under the caveat that he work to pay his board. He graduated in 1875 and later returned to teach night school. This eventually led to his being chosen to found the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, a teachers' college for black students.

Washington was also a prolific writer, editor and speaker. He was an advocate for cooperation and equality between races, and an opponent of racism. He worked and clashed with other prominent African American activists such as W.E.B. DuBois, and he worked with other famous personages like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, was published in 1901 and became a best seller. His tireless work for the advancement of the black community was continuous up until his death on Nov. 14, 1915, which was attributed to overwork and hypertension.