His family was set free by the Union Army following the Civil War.

After being set free, he started to attend school.

He didn’t have any money or transportation, so he worked  to earn money and also walked and hitchhiked to get to Hampton from his home in West Virginia.

Hampton allowed him to attend the school in exchange for working as a janitor at the school.
Booker T. Washington  graduated in 1876

The school didn’t have much money and no campus, buildings, students, or staff.  Booker T. Washington had to start from scratch.

Booker T. Washington recruited students and teachers and raised money for land, buildings, and equipment. He and his students actually built a kiln, an oven used for making bricks, and they built their own school building. 

Under Booker T. Washington’s leadership, Tuskegee pioneered in agricultural improvements and would send out demonstration wagons that brought better methods to farmers and sharecroppers.

African Americans who were cotton sharecroppers improved their farming techniques, income, and living conditions.

Booker T. Washington urged African American sharecroppers to investor in their own business and he was the founder of the National Negro Business League in 1900. 

Black agricultural scientist George Washington Carver (c. 1864–1943) worked at Tuskegee from 1896 to 1943, developing new products from peanuts and sweet potatoes. 

By 1915 Tuskegee had fifteen hundred students and a larger endowment (designated funds) than any other black institution.

In 1895 Washington gave his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech. 

The Atlanta Compromise was an agreement between Booker T. Washington, some black southern leaders and white southern leaders.

The Atlanta Compromise urged black people to drop demands for political and social rights, concentrating instead on improving job skills and usefulness. 

"The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house" 

He appealed to white people to rely on loyal, proven black workers, pointing out that the South would advance to the degree that blacks were allowed to secure education and become productive.

The Atlanta Compromise was seen as a “sell-out” by some other black leaders, such as W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), John Hope (1868–1936), and William Monroe Trotter (1872–1934).  

He became powerful, having the deciding voice in federal appointments of African Americans and in philanthropic grants (charitable donations) to black institutions. 

Through subsidies, or secret partnerships, he controlled black newspapers, therefore silencing critics. 

Impressed by his power and hoping his tactics would work, many black people went along

His autobiography ‘Up from Slavery’ gave a detailed account of the problems faced by blacks during that era and how he overcame the obstacles to succeed in his life. 

He was awarded an honorary master’s degree from Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1901 for his contributions to American society.