Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Virginia in the mid-to-late 1850s. On Oct. 5, 1872, Washington entered Hampton Institute in Virginia. Booker T. Washington graduated from Hampton in 1875 with high marks. Washington put himself through school and became a teacher.
In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama (now known as Tuskegee University), which grew immensely and focused on training African Americans in agricultural pursuits. A political adviser and writer, Washington clashed with intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois over the best avenues for racial uplift.
