Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (The Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

This autobiography of a slave’s rise to distinction asserts that a strong work ethic and excellence in whatever one is doing will be rewarded no matter what race or what position a person holds in life. As far as Washington was concerned, slavery only made the black person stronger. He argued that both blacks and whites would benefit more from giving blacks vocational training than from encouraging the “craze for Greek & Latin learning.” While this set him at odds with other black leaders of his time, such as W.E. B. Du Bois, it also set the groundwork for Washington’s Tuskegee Institute to be the best-funded black educational institution of its era.

Born a slave on a small farm in the Virginia backcountry, Booker T. Washington never knew his father, who he heard was a white man. After slavery ended, Washington completed secondary education at Hampton Institute. In 1881 he founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. He secured his influence by delivering The Atlanta Compromise Address before the Cotton States Exposition in 1895, and went on to found the National Negro Business League. His prominence led him to be called to serve as an advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.