Washington, Booker T(aliaferro) (1856–1915)
US educationist, pioneer in higher education for black people in the South. He was the founder and first principal of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in 1881, originally a training college for blacks, and now an academic institution. He maintained that economic independence was the way to achieve social equality.
Washington argued that blacks should abandon their struggle for immediate civil rights and instead concentrate on acquiring wealth, culture, and education, and that these in turn would bring respect, acceptance, and eventual equality for blacks. This stance caused him to be shunned by many black intellectuals and civil-rights leaders such as W E B du Bois.
| Washington was born in Franklin County, Virginia, the son of a slave. After emancipation he went with his family to West Virginia, and in 1892 attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. As principal of Tuskegee Institute, Washington emphasized the virtues of industrial training rather than liberal arts education. He also set up the National Negro Business League in 1900. His books include the autobiography Up from Slavery (1901). |
