Up From Slavery

Perhaps no other African-American leader has excited a wider range of emotional and intellectual response as Booker T. Washington. Esteemed for his tireless efforts to create opportunities for his oppressed brothers and sisters, renounced for his willingness work with and even seek the favor of their former oppressors, he never lost sight of his goals. Through the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights Movement, it was Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and other great minds of their era—not Booker T. Washington—whose words and deeds were called upon. But in his time, Booker T. Washington brought hope, self-respect, and unprecedented achievements for countless individuals who had never before dared dream for them. From nothing, he built the great institution that sent thousands into the population as skilled workers, teachers, scientists, and leaders of all men and women—that eventually produced the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II—that today, over a century later, is one of the leading universities of the South. UP FROM SLAVERY is the title of his book—it has also, for many American generations, been the legacy of his lifework.