WASHINGTON, Booker T(aliaferro) (1856-1915), American educator, who urged blacks to attempt to uplift themselves through educational attainments and economic advancement. Washington was born April 5, 1856, on a plantation in Franklin Co., Va., the son of a slave. Following the American Civil War, his family moved to Malden, W.Va., where he worked in a salt furnace and in coal mines, attending school whenever he could. From 1872 to 1875 he attended a newly founded school for blacks, …
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showed last 75 words of 322 total
…themselves through vocational training and economic self-reliance. Many whites, pleased by his views, and many blacks, awed by his prestige, accepted Washington as the chief spokesperson of the American black. Many other blacks, such as the American writer and sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, objected to such quiescent tactics, however, and strongly opposed Washington. Washington founded several organizations, including the National Negro Business League, to further black advancement. He died on Nov. 14, 1915, at Tuskegee.