American educator
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External Websites
- BlackPast - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Tuskegee University - Booker T. Washington
- Spartacus Educational - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Black History Now - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Social Studies for Kids - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- National Park Service - Legends of Tuskegee - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- African American Registry - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Encyclopedia of Alabama - Booker T. Washington
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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Booker T. Washington - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- Booker T. Washington - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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External Websites
- BlackPast - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Tuskegee University - Booker T. Washington
- Spartacus Educational - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Black History Now - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Social Studies for Kids - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- National Park Service - Legends of Tuskegee - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- African American Registry - Biography of Booker T. Washington
- Encyclopedia of Alabama - Booker T. Washington
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Booker T. Washington - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- Booker T. Washington - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: Booker Taliaferro Washington
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
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- In full:
- Booker Taliaferro Washington
- Born:
- April 5, 1856, Franklin county, Virginia, U.S.
- Awards And Honors:
- Hall of Fame (1945)
See all related content →
Top Questions
Who was Booker T. Washington?
Who was Booker T. Washington?
Booker T. Washington was an educator and reformer, the first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University, and the most influential spokesman for Black Americans between 1895 and 1915.
Which college did Booker T. Washington attend?
Which college did Booker T. Washington attend?
Booker T. Washington enrolled at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia (1872), working as a janitor to help pay expenses. He graduated in 1875 and returned to Malden, West Virginia, where for two years, he taught children in a day school and adults at night.
Why did Booker T. Washington establish the Tuskegee Institute?
Why did Booker T. Washington establish the Tuskegee Institute?
Booker T. Washington founded the school in 1881 and served as its principal until his death in 1915. This institute inculcated Washington’s principles of providing practical training for African Americans and helping them develop economic self-reliance through the mastery of manual trades and agricultural skills.
What was the Atlanta Compromise speech about?
What was the Atlanta Compromise speech about?
The Atlanta Compromise was a statement on race relations by Booker T. Washington. In his epochal speech (September 18, 1895) to a racially mixed audience at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington stated that: "In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." This “accommodationist” philosophy disturbed Black intellectuals, who feared Washington’s emphasis on vocational skills was to the detriment of academic development and civil rights.
Booker T. Washington (born April 5, 1856, Franklin county, Virginia, U.S.—died November 14, 1915, Tuskegee, Alabama) was an educator and reformer, the first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and the most influential spokesman for Black Americans between 1895 and 1915.
He was born in a slave hut but, after emancipation, moved with his family to Malden, West Virginia. Dire poverty ruled out regular schooling; at age nine he began working, first in a salt furnace and later in a coal mine. Determined to get an education, he enrolled at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia (1872), working as a janitor to help pay expenses. He graduated in 1875 and returned to Malden, where for two years he taught children in a day school and adults at night. Following studies at Wayland Seminary, Washington, D.C. (1878–79), he joined the staff of Hampton.
In 1881 Washington was selected to head a newly established normal school for African Americans at Tuskegee, an institution with two small converted buildings, no equipment, and very little money. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute became a monument to his life’s work. At his death 34 years later, it had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, some 1,500 students, a faculty of nearly 200 teaching 38 trades and professions, and an endowment of approximately $2 million.
Washington believed that the best interests of Black people in the post-Reconstruction era could be realized through education in the crafts and industrial skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift. He urged his fellow Blacks, most of whom were impoverished and illiterate farm labourers, to temporarily abandon their efforts to win full civil rights and political power and instead to cultivate their industrial and farming skills so as to attain economic security. Blacks would thus accept segregation and discrimination, but their eventual acquisition of wealth and culture would gradually win for them the respect and acceptance of the white community. This would break down the divisions between the two races and lead to equal citizenship for Blacks in the end. In his epochal speech (September 18, 1895) to a racially mixed audience at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington summed up his pragmatic approach in the famous phrase:
In all things that are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.
These sentiments were called the Atlanta Compromise by such critics as the Black intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, who deplored Washington’s emphasis on vocational skills to the detriment of academic development and civil rights. And indeed it is true that, during the period of Washington’s ascendancy as national spokesman for African Americans, his race was systematically excluded both from the franchise and from any effective participation in national political life, and rigid patterns of segregation and discrimination became institutionalized in the Southern states. Even Washington’s visit to the White House in 1901 was greeted with a storm of protest as a “breach of racial etiquette.”
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Most Blacks felt comfortable with Washington’s approach, however, and his influence among whites was such that he became an unofficial arbiter determining which Black individuals and institutions were deemed worthy to benefit from government patronage and white philanthropic support. He went on to receive honorary degrees from Harvard University (1896) and Dartmouth College (1901). Among his dozen books is his autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), translated into many languages.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.