Booker T. Washington Timeline

Booker Taliaferro Washington is born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia.

Freed after the American Civil War, Washington moves with his family to Malden, West Virginia.

Determined to get an education, Washington starts attending the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (the present-day Hampton University), in Virginia. He works as a janitor to pay for his expenses.

Washington graduates from Hampton Institute. He returns to Malden to teach children at a day school and adults at night.

Washington attends Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Washington teaches at Hampton Institute.

Washington is selected to head the newly established Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for African Americans, in Tuskegee, Alabama.

After the deaths of his first two wives, Washington marries a principal from Tuskegee Institute, Margaret James Murray. The marriage lasts until his death.

Washington delivers a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, on the subject of social justice. He emphasizes the importance of vocational skills for the progress of African Americans rather than political agitation. This stance draws the criticism of Black intellectuals such as W.E.B. Du Bois.

Harvard University presents Washington with an honorary degree.

The Story of My Life and Work, Washington’s first autobiography, is published.

Washington’s second autobiography, Up from Slavery, is published. He also receives an honorary degree from Dartmouth College.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt invites Washington to the White House in order to get his advice about political appointments. Washington’s visit to the White House is greeted with a storm of protest as a “breach of racial etiquette.”

Washington dies in Tuskegee.