Washington was born on April 5, 1865. He was born into slavery at the James Burroughs family plantation in Virginia. Nothing is known about Booker T. Washingtons father beyond the fact that he was a white man. After the Civil War Booker T. Washington worked in a salt furnace and attended school 3 months out of the year. At the age of 17, he was accepted into Hampton Institute in Virginia. When Booker T. Washington graduated from the institute, he then entered the Wayland Seminary. In 1881, Booker T Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. But he did not stop there. He initiated many forms of work and established the National Negro Business League, the National Negro Health Week, and various others. In 1884, Booker T. Washington addressed the National Education Association, which emphasized education for meeting demands of life. The speech appealed to the white educators, which perceived an approach to the racial question. About 11 years later, Booker T. Washington gave another speech at the opening of the Cotton States Exposition. The Negro intellectuals opposed his views. They accused him of supporting a program called submissive philosophy. For more than 20 years Booker T. Washington was a leader in Negro America. He has been described as the most prominent Negro in America. State and National officials sought him out to endorse Negroes to fill political offices. He used to urge Negroes to subordinate their political, civil and social strivings for economic betterment. Because he accepted segregation and his refusal to make an open attack on Jim Crow it brought him a conflict with two militant Harvard newspapermen. William Lloyd Garrison criticized Booker T. Washington through his Liberator telling people that he was a traitor to his race and he also demanded immediate equality. His purpose was to gain the sympathy and cooperation of the white South, which seemed like an almost impossible task. Boo...
