Biographical Note
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856 and after Emancipation grew up in the Kanawha Valley of West Va. At the age of 16 he enrolled in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Va. In 1881, on the recommendation of staff of the Hampton Institute, he was hired to found a school for African Americans in Tuskegee, Ala. Booker T. Washington became a prominent leader as the result of his fund-raising efforts for Tuskegee. By 1895, Washington had a reputation as a public speaker which is reflected in this collection. He gained the respect of Theodore Roosevelt, who became a trustee of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1910. Washington died at Tuskegee on November 14, 1915 shortly after a speaking engagement in the Northeast.