Booker T. Washington

Born 1856 · Joined the Ancestors 1915

Fact

Built Tuskegee Institute from nothing into a major educational center

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First Black American invited to dine at the White House

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Up From Slavery remains one of the most-read American memoirs

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery in 1856 and rose to become the most influential Black leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As founder and principal of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he built an educational institution from the ground up.

His philosophy centered on economic advancement through vocational education and entrepreneurship. His 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech argued for Black economic development.

While publicly accommodationist, Washington secretly funded legal challenges to segregation. His autobiography Up From Slavery remains one of the most widely read American memoirs.