Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site ⓘ

Tuskegee Institute was founded on July 4,1881 but the idea for a school for African Americans in the city of Tuskegee actually began two years prior. In 1879, Lewis Adams( link here to Adams page) was approached by W.F. Foster a Democrat running in the Alabama Senate race for his help in getting the black vote. Foster and Brooks both won their races and in return they upheld their end of the bargain by working to draft House Bill 165. The bill allocated $2,000 to fund the salaries of teachers and free tuition for students so long as they agreed to teach in Alabama’s public schools for at least two years. The bill also required that the school have at least 25 pupils and stay in session for at least nine months per year. The bill also created a board of commissioners to oversee the management of the school among the first three members: George W. Campbell and Lewis Adams.

When Booker T. Washington first arrived in Tuskegee, Alabama during the summer of 1881 Tuskegee State Normal School was a school in name only. Although the house bill allocated funding for teachers’ salaries it did not provide any land for the school. The earlier classes for Tuskegee State Normal School were held inside an old building owned by Butler Chapel AME Zion Church. The building or “shanty” as Washington described it would often leak when it rained. In his book Up From Slavery Washington wrote that he “ recalled that during the first months of school that he taught in this building it was in such poor repair that, whenever it rained, one of the older students would very kindly leave his lessons and hold an umbrella over [him].”

In September of 1881 Washington would purchase an abandoned farm known as The Old Burnt Place. The farm which was once a cotton plantation owned by William Banks Bowen got its nickname as a result of a portion of the farm being burned during the Civil War. The only buildings that remained were a cabin, old kitchen, stable and a hen house. The farm was purchased for $500 with a $200 down payment; Hampton Institute’s treasurer James Marshall loaned Washington the money for the down payment from his personal account.

Within four months Washington would write Marshall a letter stating that “ four months and a half ago, without a dollar of our own, we contracted to buy a farm of a hundred acres, at a cost of five hundred dollars, on which to permanently locate our school. Today the last dollar has been paid.”

Prior to Booker T. Washington arriving in Tuskegee, Alabama a African American man named Lewis Adams , his wife Sarah “Sallie” Green and members of Butler Chapel AME Zion church, where Adams was the deacon, attempted to open a school for African Americans in the area to receive a basic education. The school was ultimately unsuccessful, as they had difficulty locating qualified teachers. Adams knew, however, that African Americans in Tuskegee and the surrounding cities needed a school that could provide both vocational and teacher training. Little did Adams know that he would become a founder of a school that would gain national and international recognition.

Lewis Adams was born enslaved in Tuskegee, Alabama on October 27, 1842. Adams was a prominent and well known African American in the city of Tuskegee. Though he received no formal education Adams could read, write and speak several different languages.

After chattel slavery was abolished in 1865 Adams opened a trades shop and school in downtown Tuskegee where he taught tinsmithing, harness making and shoemaking. Adam’s wife, Sarah “Sallie” Green taught sewing and cooking to interested young women. Adams would become one of three men to sit on Tuskegee Institute’s first board of Trustees, then known as the Board of Commissioners. In 1890 Adams would join Tuskegee Institute’s faculty teaching his three trades. He would remain a member of the board until his passing in 1905.

Booker T. Washington was born enslaved on the James Burroughs plantation in Hale’s Fort, Franklin County, Virginia in 1856. After the abolishment of chattel slavery in 1863 Booker T. Washington’s mother moved him and his sibling to Malden, West Virginia to live with their stepfather.

During his time in Malden Booker T. worked as a salt packer, coal miner and as a butler. It was while he was working inside a salt furnace that Booker T. Washington learned to read and write his first number,the number 18. While working inside the furnace a black man arrived in Malden who had a considerable amount of education. Booker T. was at first excited about the prospect of receiving an education, however, his dreams were soon shattered when his stepfather refused to allow him to go to school because the family needed the money his job brought in. Booker T was persistent and he soon convinced his stepfather to allow him to attend class at 9, if he woke up early to work in the furnace and came back for two hours in the afternoon. It was during this arrangement that Booker T. was faced with another problem: the distance between the school and the furnace. He solved this problem by setting the clock ahead one hour inside the mine to be sure he was able to make it to school on time.

At the age of 16 with just a few dollars and a small satchel Booker T. Washington travelled over 500 miles to reach Hampton Institute. He arrived in Hampton dirty, hungry and with just fifty cents; his entrance examination into the Institute was to clean a recitation room. He managed to put himself through college by performing janitorial services for Hampton Institute. Booker T. Washington graduated from Hampton Institute at the age of 19 and returned to Malden, West Virginia to teach where he helped his two brothers and several other local blacks get accepted into Hampton Institute.

In 1879 Booker T. Washington would return to Hampton Institute but this time as a teacher. His job during this time was to assist in the “education and civilization” of Native Americans. Next year he would run Hampton’s newly established night school. It was during a chapel service in May of 1881 that General Armstrong, Hampton’s president and founder, received a telegram from Tuskegee State Normal School’s board of commissioners, “ Booker T. Washington will suit us,” it read “send him at once.”

Booker T. Washington arrived in Tuskegee, Alabama in June of 1881. During his first month in Tuskegee he toured around the county spending the day and night at the houses of various blacks in order to examine their everyday lives and to promote the new school. The school would open on July 4, 1881 with 30 students.

On September 18, 1895 Booker T. Washington would deliver his Atlanta Exposition Speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. The speech nicknamed the Atlanta Compromise by W.E.B. DuBois, would catapulte Washington to fame. In 1901, Booker T. Washington became the first African American to be invited to the White House for dinner.

Booker T. Washington passed away on November 14, 1915 at the age of 59 due to conditions related to high blood pressure.

George Washington Carver was born in Diamond Grove, Missouri in 1864 on a farm owned by Moses and Susan Carver. In 1865, before the end of the Civil War, Mary, Carver’s mother and Carver were both kidnapped from the Carver Farm. Moses and Susan Carver sent out people to try and locate both Mary and an infant Carver. They succeeded in locating Carver in Arkansas, however his mother was never found. Carver was returned to Moses and Susan and he would live with them until he left to attend Neosho Colored School in Neosho, Missouri in 1876. In 1878, he would leave Neosho and travel to Fort Scott, Kansas where he would spend time roaming throughout Kansas and Missouri attending different schools and working temporary jobs.

In 1890 Carver enrolled at Simpson College to study music and art, just one year later he would transfer to Iowa State College. In 1894, Carver graduated from Iowa State College where he received a Bachelor of Agriculture degree and in 1896 he received a Master of Science degree in Agriculture, making him the first and at the time only African American with an advanced degree in agricultural science. On October 8, 1896 Carver would join Tuskegee Institute’s staff as the Director of Agriculture. In May of 1906 Carver initiated the Jesup Wagon with Thomas Monroe Campbell. The Jesup Wagon, which would eventually become the Movable School Bus, was used by Carver to go into the surrounding communities to teach poor farmers about nutrition, proper hygiene, crop rotation, and home decor.

In 1941, the George Washington Carver Museum opened on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. The museum showcased various paintings, knittings, experiments, and crops by Carver. Carver passed away on January 5, 1943 at the age of 79. Upon his death his entire estate, amounting to over $60,000 was bequeathed to the George Washington Carver Foundation.