In what ways did Booker T Washington’s influence shape the economic and social advancement of black southerners, 1880-1920 Booker Taliaferro was born the son of a slave on 5 April 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. His mother was a cook to plantation owner James Burroughs, while the identity of his father was unknown. Booker worked in the plantations mill, a heavy burden for a small child, and a place where he was sometimes subjected to beatings for not carrying out his work properly. Following the end of the Civil War the family moved to Malden in West Virginia where his mother met and married an African-American freedman – Washington Ferguson. The young Booker adopted his stepfather’s Christian name as his surname and thus Booker T Washington became the name he would spend his life being recognised as. At the age of eleven the young Booker was engaged as houseboy to the wife of a coal mine owner who permitted him to attend school during the winter months for one hour a day, thus Booker’s educational journey began. …show more content…
By 1881 Washington was approached to take on the role of Principal of the newly formed Tuskegee Institute that was located in one room of the AME Zion Church, with a class of thirty pupils. Washington’s appointment as Principal of Tuskegee was pivotal and mapped the path to what would be his life's work. This essay aims to examine the social, economic and political circumstances that swayed and shaped Washington’s career from the post Reconstruction era through to 1920 and thus provide an analysis of the way his influence and ideology shaped the economic advancement of black