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Booker T. Washington

1856-1915

Tuskegee, Alabama

As the 19th century came to an end and segregation took ever-stronger hold in the South, many African Americans saw self-improvement, especially through education, as the single greatest opportunity to escape the indignities they suffered. Many blacks looked to Booker T. Washington, the author of the bestselling Up From Slavery (1900), as an inspiration. As president of Alabama's Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Washington urged blacks to acquire the kind of industrial or vocational training (such as farming, mechanics and domestic service) that would give them the necessary skills to carve out a niche for themselves in the U.S. economy

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Uploaded on March 6, 2012
Taken on March 6, 2012