The Story of My Life and Work

Booker T. Washington's inspiring life story describes a man born into slavery who rose to become one of the most respected educators and authors of his time. This edition includes all the original photographs of the Tuskegee schools.

Born in Virginia in 1856, Washington spent his early childhood as a slave on a plantation. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, his mother Jane took the young Booker to West Virginia, where Booker soon demonstrated a keen aptitude for learning and educating. In 1881, aged only twenty-five, Booker was appointed leader of the Tuskegee Institute - a school the first of its kind for black Americans.

This appointment began a lengthy career wherein Washington proved an able organizer and founder of many schools for black people all around the United States. Catapulted to great fame for his eloquent Atlanta Address in 1895, it was following this that Booker's efforts to expand educative facilities for young black people accelerated. Many were taught both vocational and academic disciplines who otherwise would have had little education demonstrated great aptitude.

First published in 1900, we witness in this autobiography Washington in his prime, having already aided many in his life's missions of tutorship. With unflinching detail we hear his recollections of his early days spent in Victoria, never knowing who his father was or even what day or month he was born. His formative years as a bright child who discovered his life's passion in learning are also related.

A moving and inspiring memoir, we see in the later chapters many photographic examples of the schools Washington's Tuskegee organization helped build. All of these photographs - over fifty in all - are included in this edition, that readers may appreciate fully the legacy which was built in those years.