Booker T. Washington was born on a plantation near Hale's Ford, Virginia. His mother was a slave and his father's identity is unknown. He spent part of his adolescence in Malden, West Virginia, where he worked in the salt furnaces and the coal mines. From 1872 to 1875 he attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now known as Hampton University. After graduation, he began teaching in Malden, and he later served as an instructor at Hampton Institute. In 1881 he founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. The college, which is located in Tuskegee, Alabama, was founded to train black men and women in technical and professional fields.

Washington served as the school's principal and as a college professor until 1915, and developed it into a leading industrial and agricultural training institute. He eventually became the most powerful African American of his day. He used his influence to espouse the virtues of black self reliance, hardwork, thrift, and political acquiesence.

Washington was heavily involved with several African newspapers including The New York Age, The Indianapolis Freeman, Chicago Appeal, and The Boston Colored Citizen. He used the money he received from several wealthy white philanthropists to clandestinely subsidize black newspapers, control their editorial viewpoint and promote his political positions and Tuskegee Institute.

Some black papers such as The Boston Guardian were strongly opposed to Washington, attacked his accomodationist political ideologies, and consequently did not benefit fom his patronage.
Washington died on November 14, 1915.

Further Reading

Du Bois, W.E.B. "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others," in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1903.

Harlan, Louis R. Booker T. Washington: The Making of A Black Leader, 1856-1901. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Hawkins, Hugh, ed. Booker T. Washington and His Critics: Black Leadership in Crisis. 2nd ed. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Health, 1974.

--- . Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Meier, August. Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.

Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904.

----. Working with the Hands. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904.