Tuskegee Education

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July 4th, 1881 Tuskegee University was first founded under the name Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers. The school was founded based on Lewis Adams and Booker T. Washington's idea that blacks should start from the top where they belong, free of social discrimination. Lewis Adams, an influential black leader and member of the Republican Negro Congress, suggested to Wilbur F. Foster, a white Democrat seeking re-election to the Alabama State Senate, that the development of a school for blacks in Macon County would win him black votes in the election. When Foster won office he created a bill that would allocate $2000 dollars annually to pay teachers, but not to help build the school. Nevertheless that didn’t stop these intelligent African Americans. They …show more content…

Washington won the support of many white organizations that were essential to the creation of black colleges. He was such a successful fundraiser that the institution gained independence from the state of Alabama in 1892. Booker T. Washington remained president until his death in 1915. He was succeeded by Robert R. Moton. After Washington's death, the industrial education model at black colleges lost a significant amount of its momentum. At the time of Washington's death, black colleges had produced a thriving black middle class. In 1935, Frederick D. Patterson, doctor of veterinary medicine and professor in Tuskegee's department of agriculture, became the institute's third president and served until 1953. In November 1940, the War Department established a program to train black pilots for the U.S. Army Air Corps. Tuskegee was chosen as a training site for these pilots, given the institute's existing course in aviation and its pre existing airfield, today named Moton Field in honor of the university's second president. Today Tuskegee is one of America's most famous historic black colleges. Tuskegee University continues to make

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