immediately following the Civil War, African Americans were faced with freat discrimination and suffering. The newly free slaves were faced with the dilemma of carving a niche in a society that once regarded them as nothing more then property.
Born in Franklin County, Virfinia in the mid - 1850s, Booker T. Washington spent his early childhood in slavery. Following emancipation, Washington (like many Blacks) felt that a formalized education was the best way to improce his living standards.