The main crop on the plantation where Booker T. Washington was born was tobacco. This photograph shows a man with draft horses preparing to plow a field.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave in April 1856 on the 207-acre farm of James Burroughs. After the Civil War, Washington became the first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School. Later as an adviser, author and orator, his past would influence his philosophies as the most influential African American of his era. Come explore his birthplace.
A free seminar will take place on February 15 that explores the efforts of African Americans throughout the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau in central Virginia and the lives and contributions of United States Colored Troops (USCTs) from Franklin County, Virginia.
A new National Park Service report shows that 24,200 visitors to Booker T. Washington National Monument in 2024 spent $1.7 million in communities near the park. That spending supported the local area.
Booker T. Washington National Monument will commemorate the 130th anniversary of Washington’s speech that propelled him to national fame, the opening speech at the 1895 Cotton States and Industrial Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia.