Tuskegee

City and administrative headquarters of Macon County, east-central Alabama, 64 km/40 mi east of Montgomery; population (1990) 12,300. It has a long agriculture-based history; industries include planing and grist mills and fertilizer and cottonseed oil plants.

It is the seat of Tuskegee University, established in 1881 as Tuskegee Institute, an elementary and secondary school for black children. The founder Booker T Washington served as principal from 1881 to his death in 1915. The botanist and agricultural chemist George Washington Carver worked at the institute as well (1897-1943), pursuing his experiments with such regional food plants as peanuts and sweet potatoes. During World War II, the Tuskegee airmen, black fighter pilots, trained here.