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pay for Booker’s tuition. Also, Booker worked as a janitor to pay the cost of his room and board. In his autobiography, Booker described his principal Armstrong as “a great man – the noblest, rarest human being it has ever been my privilege to meet.” Moreover, it was from Armstrong that he learned most of his educational philosophy.
become the first leader of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. At the time of his arrival, the institution had two small converted buildings, no equipment and very little money. Undaunted, Washington began selling the idea of the school, recruiting students, and seeking support of local whites. The school opened on July 4, 1881.
Now, Washington then borrowed money from the treasurer of Hampton Institute and purchased an abandoned plantation on the outskirts of Tuskegee, which became the permanent site of the campus. Under the direction of Washington, the students then built their own school: making bricks, constructing classrooms, barns, and outbuildings.
By 1888, the Tuskegee Institute had an enrollment of more than 400 and offered training in such skilled trades as carpentry, cabinet-making, printing, shoe-making, and tin-smithing. The development of the Tuskegee Institute was a major focus of Washington throughout his life. By the time of his death, the institute had more than 100 well-equipped buildings, around 1,500 students, a faculty of nearly 200 teachers and an endowment of approximately $2 million. Eventually, Washington went on to raise substantial funds for the establishment and running of hundreds of small community schools and institutions for the higher education of blacks. While doing so, he was able to
In 1875, Booker graduated with honors from Hampton. He then went to teach at this old grade school in Malden, Virginia. Later in 1878, he attended the Wayland Seminary in Washington DC, an institution with a curriculum that was entirely academic.
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
In 1881, Samuel C. Armstrong, who held the hard-working outlook of Booker in high regard, recommended him to