Booker Taliaferro Washington, better known as Booker T. Washington, was born April 5, 1856, as a slave to a slave-owner father and a slave mother in Franklin County, Va.
Washington is better known for his heroics as one of the forefathers of the civil rights movement. Washington learned to read and write while working as a slave. At the age of 16, he began his studies at what is now Hampton University. After training to be a teacher at Hampton, he went on to become the first leader of Tuskegee Institute in 1881.
Active in politics, Washington was routinely consulted by Republican congressmen and presidents about the appointments of African Americans to political positions. He worked with many white politicians. He argued that the best way for blacks to eventually gain equal rights was to demonstrate patience, continue working in industry, and demonstrating their usefulness. He said that this was key to improving conditions for African Americans in the United States, and that they could not expect too much, having only just been granted their freedom.
When his autobiography, Up From Slavery, was published in 1901, it became a bestseller and had a major influence on the African American community. In 1901 Washington was the first African-American ever invited to the White House as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Washington fell ill in Tuskegee, Ala., due to a lifetime of hard work and died soon after in a hospital, on Nov. 14, 1915. He is buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel.