Editing Tuskegee, Alabama (section)

===Late 19th century===
In 1881, the young [[Booker T. Washington]] was hired to develop the [[Tuskegee Institute|Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers]] on the grounds of a former plantation. It was founded to train teachers for the segregated school system and [[Freedman|freedmen]] for self-sufficiency. Washington established a work-study program by which students practiced skills and trades. Over the decades, the programs were expanded. This was later named the Tuskegee Institute. Graduate courses were added and it became [[Tuskegee University]].

Washington was known for his emphasis on [[education]] and [[self-improvement]]. The institute became known for stressing a practical education with [[work experience]] by [[students]], to prepare them for the agricultural and mechanical work available in the small towns and [[rural areas]] to which most would return.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart6.html |title=African American Odyssey |contribution=The Booker T. Washington Era (Part 1) |publisher=Library of Congress |date=March 21, 2008 |access-date=September 3, 2008}}</ref> Teaching was a highly respected calling, as education was a major goal among the freedmen and their children. Washington believed that African Americans would achieve acceptance by Southern whites when they had raised themselves.<ref name="taper">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1120089?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents Richard B. Sobol, "Reviewed Work: ''Gomillion versus Lightfoot: The Tuskegee Gerrymander Case'' by Bernard Taper"], ''Columbia Law Review'' Vol. 62, No. 4 (Apr. 1962), pp. 748–751 {{subscription required|via JSTOR}}</ref>

Washington led the school for [[decades]], building a wide national network of white [[industrialist]] [[donors]] among some of the major [[philanthropists]] of the era, including [[George Eastman]]. At the same time, Washington secretly provided funding for its [[legal defense]] of some highly visible [[civil rights]] cases,{{which|date=September 2021}} including supporting challenges to Southern states' discriminatory constitutions and practices that [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised African Americans]].<ref name="pildes">[https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 Richard H. Pildes, Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon, ''Constitutional Commentary'', vol.17, 2000, pp.13–14] Accessed March 10, 2008</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2021}} Washington worked with [[Julius Rosenwald]] and [[architects]] at the [[college]] to develop models for rural schools, to be used with Rosenwald's matching funds to build more schools for black children in the South.