Booker T. Washington Imagine being an African American in the Progressive Era and not having full civil rights like the whites have. Booker T. Washington was born a slave in on April 5, 1856. Poverty ruled out regular schooling, but Booker T. was determined to get an education. He enrolled at Hampton University (at the time it was called Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute), to pay the expenses he worked as a janitor. When he finished college he joined the staff of the institute. Booker T. was later picked to be the head of a teacher's school for African Americans. Booker T. Washington believed that the best interests in African Americans could be realized through education. He suggested that blacks should give up on trying to get full
