Tuskegee Institute

From Unawiki

  • Formed by Booker T. Washington in 1881, the black college "Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute" in Alabama embodied Washington's Belief in the importance of vocational training and practical education for blacks.
  • Though influential, his belief in 'usable skills' as a means of assimilation and elevation was much criticized by other African American leaders, including W.E.B. DuBois, who developed the alternative concept of the Talented Tenth.
  • Washington, who wanted his students to be "separate, but equal" and supported<"racial uplift", was the principal of T. until his death in 1915.
  • In the 1920s the collage broadened away from vocational education towards higher education, began to award degrees and was renamed "Tuskegee Institute" in 1937 and then "Tuskegee University" in 1985.
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