Booker T. Washington

This is Booker T. Washington.
This is him and his family

This is Tuskegee Institute today

Booker T. Washington was an African American born in April 5, 1856 into slavery. After slavery ended his mother moved them to Malden, West Virginia. There he taught himself to read and he worked different manual labor jobs. Slaves were not given last names when they were born. On his first day of school his teacher was asking what everybody's names were (including their last name). When it got to be Booker's turn he said "Booker Washington". From that day on his whole family used Washington as their last name. His mother had wanted to name him Booker Taliaferro but had only called him Booker (that is where the T. comes from). In 1881 he was invited to serve as president of Tuskegee Institute. He served there until his death on November 14, 1915.

Sarah

Resources:
ABeka 3rd grade History (Our American Heritage)
World Book Encyclopedia