Booker T. Washington
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
- Categories: Social Issues, Reform, and Protest
- Subcategories: Authors, Writers, African Americans, Blacks, Teaching, Teachers, Reconstruction, Segregation, Desegregation, Apartheid, Slavery, Slaves
- Curriculum: American History 1901-1950, African American History, American Civil War & Reconstruction Era (1856-1877), American History 1878-1900
Article abstract: Combining an optimistic outlook with a spirit of accommodation in race relations, Washington provided leadership and a program to American blacks during an era of segregation.
Early Life
Booker Taliaferro Washington was born April 5, 1856, on a farm near Hale’s Ford, Virginia. His mother, Jane Ferguson, was a slave and a cook for James Burroughs; his father was a white man whose identity is unknown. Washington had a brother John, four years his senior, also a mulatto, and a sister who died in infancy. When the family was emancipated,...
[The entire page is 2533 words long]
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