At a glance
- Age
- 59
- Born
- April 5, 1856
- From
- Hale's Ford
- Nationality
- United States
Biography
The quotes that circulate under his name come from a man who spent his working life in two roles at once: teaching, and speaking in public about what education could do. Booker Taliaferro Washington was an educator, an author and an orator, and it was the combination — the classroom, the page and the platform — that gave his words reach beyond any one audience.
For a quarter of a century, from 1890 until his death in 1915, he was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the Black elite of his day. That is a long stretch to hold a position of that kind, and it means most of what survives of him was produced by someone who was being listened to closely, and argued with, at the time he said it.
He was born on 5 April 1856 at Hale's Ford, in the United States, and died on 14 November 1915. Beyond the outline of his career as teacher, writer and speaker, the record here is spare; the material that keeps his name in circulation is the body of speeches and books he left behind.
For a quarter of a century, from 1890 until his death in 1915, he was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the Black elite of his day. That is a long stretch to hold a position of that kind, and it means most of what survives of him was produced by someone who was being listened to closely, and argued with, at the time he said it.
He was born on 5 April 1856 at Hale's Ford, in the United States, and died on 14 November 1915. Beyond the outline of his career as teacher, writer and speaker, the record here is spare; the material that keeps his name in circulation is the body of speeches and books he left behind.
