Booker T. Washington Quick Facts

Booker T. Washington Quick Facts

Black American educator, influential leader, and spokesman for the black community
Birth / April 5, 1856
Death / November 14, 1915
Place of Birth / FranklinCounty, Virginia
Principal Residence / Tuskegee, Alabama
Known for / Advocating improvements in the black community through education and economic self-reliance
Founding the Tuskegee Institute (now TuskegeeUniversity) and the National Negro Business League
Career / 1872-1875 Attended HamptonNormal and Agricultural Institute (now HamptonUniversity) in Virginia
Late 1870s Taught for two years in Malden, West Virginia
1879 Taught at the Hampton Institute
1881 Was appointed to establish the TuskegeeNormal School (now TuskegeeUniversity)
1881-1915 Headed the Tuskegee Normal School (which became the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1937)
September 18, 1895 Delivered his controversial compromise speech, in which he urged blacks to accept their inferior social position and to advance themselves through education and economic improvement
1899 Published The Future of the American Negro
1900 Founded the National Negro Business League
1901 Published the autobiography Up from Slavery
Quote / 'In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.' September 18, 1895, in his compromise speech at the CottonStates and International Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia.
Did You Know / Writer and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois was an outspoken critic of Washington's policy of compromise.
Washington acted as advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
Washington's power and influence earned him the nickname Wizard of Tuskegee.
President Theodore Roosevelt entertained Washington at a 1901 White House dinner.

Frederick Douglas

1818 / Born a slave, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, Maryland.
1826-38 / Taught to read by his owner's wife. Works in Baltimore as servant and laborer. Changes his name to Frederick Douglass and escapes to freedom in the North. Marries Anna Murray, a free Baltimore woman.
1839 / First hears abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.
1841-47 / Speaks at an abolitionist meeting in Massachusetts and is employed as a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery society.
1845 / Publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Leaves for England and Scotland to escape slave hunters.
1846 / English admirers purchase Douglass' freedom and he returns to the US.
1847 / Publishes the North Star, a weekly newspaper in Rochester, New York. Becomes an eloquent spokesman for emancipation and for the rights of women. Meets John Brown in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1848 / Attends first Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York.
1851 / Breaks with Garrison over issue of political action to end slavery, which Garrison opposes.
1853 / Visits Harriet Beecher Stowe at her home.
1855 / Publishes his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. Helps runaway slaves to find freedom via the Underground Railroad.
1858 / John Brown stays at Douglass' home in Rochester while planning to encourage a slave revolt.
1859 / Douglass refuses to support Brown and his planned raid on Harper's Ferry.
1861-64 / Works to aid the Union cause. Meets with President Lincoln to improve the treatment of African-American soldiers. Attends President Lincoln's second inauguration.
1865 / Receives President Lincoln's walking stick from Mrs. Lincoln.
1872-81 / Moves to Washington, DC, and purchases Cedar Hill, a fifteen acre estate, in 1878. Becomes federal marshal for the District of Columbia in 1877 and recorder of deeds in 1881.
1884-87 / Marries Helen Pitts, a white woman from Rochester, New York. They travel to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece in 1886-87.
1889-91 / Appointed minister resident and consul general to the Republic of Haiti. Resigns and returns to Cedar Hill in 1891. Continues to speak for oppressed people and as a champion of human rights.
1895 / Dies on February 20 at Cedar Hill after attending a women's rights meeting. Helen Pitts Douglass works to preserve the home in his memory.

Adapted from: Thoughts for all Time: A Frederick Douglass Chronology National Park Service, National Parks and Conservation Association, and Parks and History Association, 1996 and featured on the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site web page

Fascinating facts about George Washington Carver inventor of peanut agricultural science. / George Washington Carver
AT A GLANCE:
One of the 20th century's greatest scientists, George Washington Carver's influence is still being felt today. Rising from slavery to become one of the world's most respected and honored men, he devoted his life to understanding nature and the many uses for the simplest of plant life. He is best known for developing crop-rotation methods for conserving nutrients in soil and discovering hundreds of new uses for crops such as the peanut.
Inventor: / George Washington Carver /
Criteria: / First to invent.
Birth: / July 12, 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri
Death: / January 5, 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama
Nationality: / American
Invention: / peanut agricultural science /
Function: / noun / crop rotation
Definition: / Carver’s scientific discoveries included more than three hundred different products derived from the peanut, some one hundred from sweet potatoes, about seventy-five from pecans, and many more including crop rotation.
Patents: / Carver received three patents between 1925 and 1927

Milestones:
1864 George Washington Carver born on July 12, in Diamond Grove, Missouri.
1874 He left the farm where he was born and eventually settled in Minneapolis, Kansas
1890 Enrolled at Simpson College to study piano and art, their first Black student
1891 Transferred to State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), Ames, IA
1893 Paintings get honorable mention at Chicago World’s Fair
1894 Bachelor of Agriculture Degree earned at Ames
1894 Appointed member of faculty, Iowa State College
1896 Master of Agriculture Degree, Iowa State College
1896 he became director of the Dept. of Agricultural Research at what is now Tuskegee University
1916 Named Fellow, London Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts
1923 Recipient, Spingarn Medal for Distinguished Service to Science
1925 1,522,176 (US) for Cosmetics and Producing the Same issued January 6,1925
1925 1,541,478 (US) for Paint and Stain and Producing the Same issued June 9, 1925
1927 1,632,365 (US) for Producing Paints and Stains issued June 14, 1927
1928 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science, Simpson College
1935 he was appointed collaborator in the Division of Plant Mycology, U.S. Department of Agriculture
1938 Hollywood Film, “Life of George Washington Carver,” made
1938 Development of George Washington Carver Museum by Tuskegee Institute Trustee Board
1939 Recipient, Roosevelt Medal for Contributions to Southern Agriculture
1939 Honorary Membership, American Inventors Society
1941 Honorary Degree, University of Rochester
1941 Recipient, Award of Merit by Variety Clubs of America
1942 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science, Selma University, Alabama
1942 Erection of George Washington Carver Cabin, at The Henry Ford
1942 birthplace marker in Diamond Grove authorized by Missouri governor
1943 George Washington Carver died at Tuskegee, Alabama on January 5,
1940 he donated his savings to establish the George W. Carver Foundation at Tuskegee University.
1943 his birthplace was established as the George Washington Carver National Monument, July 14,
1948 First day sale of three-cent Carver Commemorative Stamp
1951 Fifty-cent piece coined to likeness of GW Carver and BT Washington
1952 Selected by Popular Mechanics as one of 50 outstanding Americans
1952 Polaris submarine George Washington Carver launched
1990 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
1998 Second Carver stamp (32¢) issued
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Rosa Louise Parks Quick Facts

Civil rights activist
Birth / February 4, 1913
Death / October 24, 2005
Place of Birth / Tuskegee, Alabama
Known for / Sparking the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus
Milestones / 1943-1956 In her spare time, Parks served as secretary and, for some of this period, youth advisor of the Montgomery branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
December 1, 1955 Refused to yield her seat to a white man, as the law required; her arrest triggered the Montgomery bus boycott
1957 Moved to Detroit, Michigan, because she and her husband could not find work in Montgomery as a result of her notoriety
1965-1988 Worked as an administrative assistant to Detroit congressman John Conyers, Jr.
1987 Founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to give career training to Detroit youths
1996 Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the American government can give a civilian
Did You Know / In addition to her arrest in December of 1955, Parks was fined $14. She refused to pay the fine, and instead appealed to the circuit court.
A 1956 district court lawsuit brought by the Montgomery Improvement Association and other civil rights advocates challenged segregated seating in public transportation; the court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court later upheld the decision in November 1956. Desegregation of Montgomery buses began a month later.