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Booker T. Washington

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@ National Portrait Gallery

Modern Art Foundry

Description

Born Hale’s Ford, VirginiaBooker T. Washington was born enslaved on a small farm in Virginia. After emancipation in 1865, young Booker worked in coal mines at night and attended school during the day. At age sixteen, he enrolled in the Hampton Institute, which emphasized the skilled trades alongside teacher training for its Black and Native American students. In 1881, after teaching for several years, Washington was appointed director of what became the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, and instituted a science and manual arts-focused curriculum to cultivate Black excellence and lead to greater economic advancement and social progress.Cast by NPG 1973 from the 1946 original at the Hall of Fame of Great Americans, Bronx, NY
Type:
Physical Object
Format:
Bronze
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution