Up From Slavery (1901) / An Autobiography/

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African-American political leader, educator and author. He was one of the dominant figures in African-American history from 1890 to 1915. He was born into slavery at the community of Hale's Ford in Franklin County, Virginia. As a young man he made his way east from West Virginia to obtain schooling at Hampton in eastern Virginia at a school established to train teachers. In his later years, Dr. Washington became a leading educator and was a prominent and popular spokesperson for African American citizens of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. Although labeled by some activists as an "accommodator", his work cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists helped raise funds to establish and operate dozens of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of black persons throughout the south. Within the context of the times he did much to improve the friendship and working relationship between the races.