Story of the Negro

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African-American community. Born into slavery in south-western Virginia, he was freed following Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamtion of 1865 and became a teacher. He came to prominence with a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895 and advocated cooperation rather than confrontation as the most effective way of overcoming racism and achieving equality for African Americans.