Booker T. Washington Posters, Books, Links for Learning
for the science and social studies classrooms and home schoolers.

Booker Taliferro Washington was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, April 5, mid to late 1850s. He lived on a plantation with his mother Jane and a brother and sister until they were emancipated at the end of the Civil War.

Booker’s mother had married and his step-father had work at a salt factory in the newly formed state of West Virginia so they went to Malden, WV. Even though Booker had to work with his stepfather he used his free time, at night, to learn to read. It was on one occassion that he got to go to school in the daytime that he added the name Washington to go with Booker. Later he would learn his mother had given him a second name, Taliferro, which he also used.

When Booker was about 16 he showed up at the Hampton Institute in Virgina to further his education. Hampton Institute was a place of work and study, as well as hygiene, morality, self-discipline and self-reliance. After he graduated he left to teach and attend seminary but returned when offered a teaching job. In 1881 Washington was offered the position of administrator of the new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Tuskegee had just a small amount of funding from the government, no students and no buildings so Booker T. Washington had to go on recruitment speaking tours and soliciate donations from wealthy northern industrialists. He was very successful in part because he took a stance on race relations that was non threatening to both the leadership in North and the South and he brought George Washington Carver to Tuskegee as a teacher.

Known as “The Great Accomodater” he thought it best that Blacks concentrate first on bettering their economic situation by learning trades rather than insisting on civil rights. As time went by and it was clear that no matter how hard the Negro worked for improvement and respect they were having their civil rights stripped away, Booker T. Washington lost leadership to more militant voices. Washington steadfastly maintained that economic independence was the way to achieve social equality.

Booker T. Washington died on November 14, 1915 and is buried at Tuskegee Institute. His birthplace in now a national monument.

	• BOOKER T. WASHINGTON POSTERS Celebrate Black History
	Great Black Americans - Booker T. Washington Poster • more Great Black Amern icans posters
	Booker T. Washington Black History Pioneer Biographical Timeline Art Poster no longer available Booker T. Washington- Black History Pioneers Biographical Timeline Fine Art Poster “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington went on to become the foremost black educator and leader of his time. He was also the founder of Tuskegee Institute, one of the leading African-American educational institutions in America. Washington steadfastly maintained that economic independence was the way to achieve social equality. • more Black History Biographical Timeline posters
	Booker T. Washington Poster Booker T. Washington b. April 5, 185?, VA d. 11-15-1915 Poster Text: “Born a slave, Booker T. Washington became the most important black educator and leader of his time. He was also the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, one of the leading African-American schools in America.” • more Heroes of History posters
	Booker T. Washington Booker T Washington American Educator Born a Slave, Photographic Print
		Fourteen Leaders Art Print
	Mary McLeod Bethune George Washington Carver W. E. B. DuBois Frederick Douglass Martin Luther King Thurgood Marshall Elijah Muhammad Adam Clayton Powell Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman Booker T. Washington Malcolm X
	Map of Alabama Art Print Map of Alabama • more Alabama Posters
	Civil Rights 1865 -1920 Poster Civil Rights 1865 - 1920 Poster • more Civil Rights Posters
	• more Black History Posters • more technical education posters

• “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”
• “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
• “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

Booker T. Washington
b. April 5, 185?, VA
d. 11-15-1915

Books about Booker T. Washington.

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington- read online

More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby - picture book, based on the childhood of Booker T. Washington, is in the voice of a nine-year-old boy. 4-8

Unshakable Faith: Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver by John Perry - Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, children of slaves, overcame seemingly insurmountable barriers to find renown in the fields of education and science. Both men retained strong personalities that occasionally came into conflict. Like iron sharpening iron, their differences served to refine and define their collaborative work. An abiding faith in Christ and sense of divine appointment guided them through a world of dark prejudice with humility and self-confidence. They quietly proved their oppressors wrong and along the way made remarkable discoveries and contributions that have inestimably benefited mankind to this day.

A Personal Tour of Tuskegee Institute (How It Was (Minneapolis, MN) by Bettye Stroud

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (1998 VHS) - groundbreaking six hour series of surprising revelations, dramatic recreations, rare archival photography and riveting first-person accounts. Africans in America helps define the reality of slavery’s past through the insightful commentary of a wide range of voices, including General Colin Powell and leading scholars, and offers unparalleled understanding - from slavery’s birth in the early 1600s through the violent onset of civil war in 1860. Narrated by Angela Bassett; includes the voices of William Hurt and Andre Braugher. Winner 1998 Peabody Award.

LINKS FOR LEARNING : BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

• Booker T. Washington National Monument (National Park Service)
• African American Odyssey: The Booker T. Washington Era
• Progress of a People: Booker T. Washington
• The History Cooperative: Booker T. Washington Papers
• Booker T. Washington, ThinkQuest Site
• American Writers: Washington and Du Bois Video Lesson Plan
• Booker T. Washington Monument - Tuskegee University
• Hampton University - Heritage