The New Student's Reference Work/Washington, Booker Taliaferro
Washington, Book′er Taliaferro, Principal of Tuskegee Normal and industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., was born in Franklin County, Va., about 1859. Born a slave, he has become prominent as a speaker and writer on racial and on educational topics. Early in life he worked in salt-mines in Maiden, W. Va., but managed to make his way to Hampton Institute, Virginia, where he received an education. In 1881 he was called to Tuskegee Institute, founded by him in the interests of the colored race, which he seeks to elevate by means not only of religious instruction but by an academic training, coupled with courses in manual and industrial work of a useful and practical character. Over 1,000 students annually attend the institute and find their way afterwards into industrial occupations. The institution is non denominational and is for both sexes, the founder's idea being to enable his colored brethren to meet present-day conditions, social and industrial, in the south and to do that by suitable education and moral training in the students he turns out from his college.