Booker T. Washington

a.k.a. Booker Taliaferro Washington

Author Code: ABTW

Born into slavery, Washington moved to West Virginia with his family after emancipation and worked in various jobs until enrolling in Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia in 1872. Working his way through school, he graduated in 1875 and taught school for a time. He continued his studies at Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C. and in 1881 was selected to head a school for blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama. From meager beginnings, Washington built the school into a respected institution with large endowments and excellent teaching facilities and which would number George Washington Carver as one of its students. Washington received honorary degrees from Harvard (1896) and Dartmouth College (1901) and wrote more than a dozen books, the most popular of which is his two-part autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901)and Working With Hands (1904).