Birth:
April 5, 1856, Franklin County, VA on a plantation
Death:
November 14, 1915, Tuskegee, Alabama
Early Influences:
- Worked in coal mines as a child
- Mother was a cook on the plantation where he lived
- Grew up in the South during the Civil War
- Moved to West Virginia after the Civil War
Education:
- Attended school when not working as a child
- 1872-1875 attended Hampton Institute and Industrial School
- Briefly attended the Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Major Accomplishments:
- Was chosen in 1861 to head the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
- Caused Tuskegee Institute to grow into one of the world's leading centers of education for African-Americans
- Founded the National Negro Business League in 1900
- Advised Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft on racial matters
- Wrote an autobiograpy, Up From Slavery in 1901
Significance:
- Stressed the importance of education and employment for African-Americans
- Became a chief spokesperson for his race
- Advocated cooperation between the races
- His views caused strife with other African-American leaders, especially W.E.B. Dubois, although in his later years he began to agree with them on the best methods to achieving equality
Contemporaries:
- W.E.B. Dubois - African-American Leader
- Theodore Roosevelt - American President
- Marie Curie - Physicist
