Up from Slavery (Penguin Classics) - Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) was born into slavery. After the Civil War he obtained a basic education while working as a coal miner and other jobs. After many difficulties, he studied at Hampton Institute in Virginia (1872-1875). He became an instructor at Hampton and in 1881 was asked to start a Negro normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama. He started Tuskegee Institute with one instructor, himself, and 30 students in borrowed quarters. Later, the school was moved just outside the town to...