was to
apply himself to the task. When the teacher's white handkerchief could
not discover any dirt in the room, she was so impressed with his work and
with his genial personality that she admitted him to the institute and
found a janitorial job to ease his financial situation.

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute had been started after the
Civil War by General Samuel Armstrong to train ex-slaves to lead their
people in pursuit of land and homes. Armstrong strongly believed that
they should not be given what they could earn for themselves. Therefore,
the institute strove to teach the student manners, cleanliness, morality,
and practical skills with which to make a living, He believed that hard
work for its own sake developed moral virtue, and he tried to instill
this respect for labor into his students.

After graduating, Washington became an instructor at Hampton Institute.
Then in 1881, he was invited to Tuskegee, Alabama, to found a similar
school there. Louis Adams, a skilled freedman, had made a political deal
which led to the establishment of the Tuskegee Institute. In return for
his delivery of the Negro vote, the state legislature provided minimal
funds for educating ex-slaves. The roof of the building which they were
using leaked and the students often had to study with umbrellas over
their heads.

In effect, the institute became a kind of commune. The students grew
their own food on the adjoining land, and they erected their own
buildings. They sold their excess produce to the citizens of Tuskegee.
They also developed skills in carpentry, brick-making, and a score of
other trades and sold their products to the community. Gradually, as the
white citizens realized that the school was not developing aggressive
blacks and that the students were providing a contribution to the
community, they came to accept it and to help it to develop by
contributing funds and supplies. They found that Tuskegee students were
hard-working, courteous, and humble instead of being self-assertive and
articulate. They realized that their fears of educating the ex-slave had
been unfounded.

In an attempt to lure more business and industry into the South,
political leaders scheduled a trade exposition for Atlanta, Georgia, in
1895. A delegation was sent to the nation's capital to request financial
aid from a Congressional comittee. Booker T. Washington was included in
the delegation as a token that there was backing from all