Up from Slavery
An Autobiography
Booker T. Washington’s famous 1901 memoir, Up From Slavery, charts Washington’s rise from an enslaved child with a passion for learning to the nation’s most prominent Black educator and first president of Tuskegee University. A tireless advocate for Black economic independence, Washington attempted to balance his public acceptance of segregation with behind-the-scenes lobbying against voter disenfranchisement and financing anti–Jim Crow court cases. His memoir is both a crucial American document and an exercise in understanding the 'double consciousness' coined by W. E .B. DuBois, himself one of Washington’s most vocal critics.
Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856–1915) was born in Franklin County, Virginia. At twenty-five he became the first principal of the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers, now Tuskegee University. He spent his life working tirelessly to advocate on behalf of Black Americans.
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