The Black educator documents his struggle for freedom and self-respect and his fight to establish industrial training programs

Describes the life of Booker T. Washington, his accomplishments as an educator, and his impact on the fight for equality.

Nine-year-old Booker works with his father and brother at the saltworks but dreams of the day when he'll be able to read.

When nine-year-old Booker T. Washington was finally freed from slavery, he soon discovered that freedom had a price, and that he had to work, and work hard, to make his way in the world. After years of study and struggle, Washington became a teacher at what would become the famed Tuskegee Institute. Built from the ground up by Washington, his students, and his staff, Tuskegee became one of the finest schools for black students in the nation. More...

In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner at the executive mansion with the First Family. The next morning, news that the president had dined with a black man-and former slave-sent shock waves through the nation. Although African Americans had helped build the White House and had worked for most of the presidents, not a single one had ever been invited to dine there. Fueled by inflammatory newspaper articles,...