Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington was the foremost black educators of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also had a major influence on southern race relations and was a dominant figure in black affairs from 1895 until his death in 1915. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1858. As a slave Booker did not have a last name and chose "Washington," his stepfather's name. After the Civil War Booker, his brother, and his mother moved …showed first 75 words of 2905 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2905 total…be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than an opportunity to spend a dollar at an opera house." WORKS CITED Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery, an autobiography. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday. Louis R. Harlan, Booker T Washington, 2 vols. (1972, 1983), with Raymond W. Smock, eds., The Booker T Washington Papers, 12 vols. (1972-): August Meier, Negro Thoughts in America, 1880-1915 (1963).