Up From Slavery

<p>Ranked among the best autobiographies Up from Slavery documents the personal achievement of the renowned educator Booker T. Washington in his long journey from being born into slavery to becoming a leading educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute a famous speaker and a spokesman for his race towards the turn of the 20th century.</p><p><br></p><p>Booker T. Washington was instrumental in helping to establish schools specializing in vocational training for minorities in order to advance their position in society by obtaining marketable skills. A firm believer in the value of education as the best route to advancement Washington disapproved of civil-rights agitation and in so doing earned the opposition of many black intellectuals. Yet he is today regarded as a major figure in the struggle for equal rights one who founded a number of organizations to further the cause and who worked tirelessly to educate and unite African Americans.</p>