Booker T. Washington

Washington, Booker T. (1856–1915), U.S. educator. Born into a Virginia slave family, he was educated and chosen in 1881 to head a new school for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute, Ala. Under his guidance the institution expanded from 2 unequipped buildings to a complex with over 100 buildings and 1,500 students. Washington urged industrial education as the way to economic independence, which he believed to be an essential prerequisite to the demand for social equality. His writings included an autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901).