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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Follow ChronAm by subscribing to email alerts and RSS feeds.
Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was one of the leading African American voices of his time. He was a writer, editor, orator, and civil rights activist who worked for the advancement of the Black community. The Tuskegee Institute was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881. His most famous speech was the "Atlanta Compromise." In 1901, his autobiography, Up From Slavery became a bestseller. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| September 18, 1895 | Washington delivers his “Atlanta Compromise” address at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, GA. He was the first African-American man to address a racially-mixed Southern audience. |
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| August 24, 1900 | The National Negro Business League, established by Washington, holds its first meeting. |
| 1901 | Washington’s widely-read autobiography Up From Slavery is published. |
| October 16, 1901 | President Theodore Roosevelt invites Washington to dine at the White House. |
| January 1906 | Washington, the first head of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, AL, speaks at Carnegie Hall to commemorate the Institute’s 25th Anniversary. |
| November 14, 1915 | Washington dies in Tuskegee, AL at age 59. |
