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Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African American community. He was freed from slavery as a child, gained an education, and as a young man was appointed to lead a teachers’ college for black Americans. From this position of leadership he rose into a nationally prominent role as spokesman for his race. He was a pragmatist and an accommodationist, and as such won friends in high places who helped him further his agenda of education for African Americans.

Nationality: American
Birth Date: 5 Apr 1856
Death Date: 14 Nov 1915
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Up from Slavery (1901)

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his slow and steady rise from a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools (most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama), to helping black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and native Americans.