Editing Booker T. Washington (section)

== Tuskegee Institute ==

In 1881, the Hampton Institute president [[Samuel C. Armstrong]] recommended Washington, then age 25, to become the first leader of [[Tuskegee University|Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute]] (later Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University), the new [[normal school]] (teachers' college) in [[Alabama]]. The new school opened on July 4, 1881, initially using a room donated by [[Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church (Tuskegee, Alabama)|Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of Alabama">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Gary |first1=Shannon |title=Tuskegee University |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama |date= 2008 |publisher=Alabama Humanities Foundation |location=Birmingham, AL |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1583 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418085131/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1583 |archive-date=April 18, 2020}}</ref>

{| style="margin:auto"
| [[File:Booker T. Washington House.jpg|thumb|The Oaks – Booker T. Washington's house at [[Tuskegee University]]]]
| [[File:History class at Tuskegee.jpg|thumb|right|A history class conducted at the Tuskegee Institute in 1902]]
|}
The next year, Washington purchased a former plantation to be developed as the permanent site of the campus. Under his direction, his students literally built their own school: making bricks, constructing classrooms, barns and outbuildings; and growing their own crops and raising livestock; both for learning and to provide for most of the basic necessities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart6.html |work=African American Odyssey |title=The Booker T. Washington Era (Part 1) |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=September 3, 2008 |archive-date=September 16, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916160055/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart6.html |url-status=live }}.</ref> Both men and women had to learn trades as well as academics. The Tuskegee faculty used all the activities to teach the students basic skills to take back to their mostly rural black communities throughout the South. The main goal was not to produce farmers and tradesmen, but teachers of farming and trades who could teach in the new lower schools and colleges for blacks across the South. The school expanded over the decades, adding programs and departments, to become the present-day Tuskegee University.{{Sfn |Harlan |1972}}{{Rp |needed=yes|date=January 2013}}

[[File:Booker T Washington stamps signed by George Washington Carver, 1940 issue.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3 |B.T. Washington stamps autographed by Carver]]
The Oaks, "a large comfortable home," was built on campus for Washington and his family.<ref name="nps.oaks">[https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/btwoaks.htm "The Oaks"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200516094334/https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/btwoaks.htm |date=May 16, 2020 }}, Tuskegee Museum, National Park Service</ref> They moved into the house in 1900. Washington lived there until his death in 1915. His widow, Margaret, lived at The Oaks until her death in 1925.<ref>{{cite book |last=Southeastern Regional Office of the National Park Service |date=2018 |title=The Oaks: Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report |url=http://npshistory.com/publications/tuin/clr-oaks.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://npshistory.com/publications/tuin/clr-oaks.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |location=Atlanta, GA |publisher=National Park Service |page=1 |quote="After Dr. Washington's death in 1915, his wife Margaret Murray Washington occupied the residence until her death in 1925."}}</ref>

In 1896 when Washington reviewed the study conducted by [[George Washington Carver]] about the infection plaguing  the soybean crop he  invited Carver to head the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee, where they became close friends.<ref name="Macintosh on Carver">{{cite journal |last1=Macintosh |first1=Barry |title=George Washington Carver and the Peanut |journal=American Heritage Magazine |date=August 1977 |volume=28 |issue=5 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/george-washington-carver-and-peanut}}</ref> Carver later autographed commemorative stamps issued in 1940 in Washington's honor.