A Taste Of School - Booker was told to carry books and walk his owner's daughters to school. That was his first taste of school, and he longed to be a part of it. His mother often reminded him that slaves could not go to school, nor were they allowed to learn to read or write.
Emancipation - Jane took her children to be with their stepfather in Malden, West Virginia after they were freed. They walked most of the 500-mile journey. Booker was sure that freedom meant he could now attend school, but there was no school in Malden. He had to work to support the family anyway. He worked long days in the salt mines and later in the coal mines.
School - Booker left home at 16 to attend a school in Hampton. His whole family took the last name of Washington when Booker decided to borrow it from another famous American. Before he left home, Booker's mother revealed to him his middle name, Taliaferro. Working as a janitor to pay his way, he would eventually teach at this same school, Hampton Normal and Agriculture School.
Tuskegee, AL - Booker T. Washington moved to Tuskegee in 1881. Borrowing a small church house, he became the first leader of the now famous Tuskegee University. With only 30 students, Tuskegee Institute opened on July 4, 1881. He built the campus with fine teachers and a heart for his people. He believed that education and hard work were the only ways former slaves would ever be able to advance themselves.
Tuskegee Machine - This political group, headed by Washington, opposed any agitation for civil rights for blacks. Washington's 1895 speech about the race problem brought him national attention. His views were moderate, and many whites supported him. Many influential white business leaders helped build the institute with large monetary gifts. Upon Washington's death, however, the more radical activists took over this political group.
Up From Slavery - Washington's best selling autobiography was published in 1901.
"...success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth..."
Death - Booker Taliaferro Washington died on November 14, 1915. He is buried on his beloved Tuskegee campus. Tuskegee University had grown to 161 buildings on 268 acres with almost 5,000 students, teachers and staff.