May I suggest exploring the many National Parks that connect to Booker T. Washington. You can visit the Booker T. Washington National Monument in his Virginia birthplace, the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Alabama, and The Oaks, his longtime residence on the Tuskegee University campus.

Booker T. Washington was a man of many firsts. He was the first African American guest at the White House (Theodore Roosevelt, 1901), the first African American to be pictured on a US Postage stamp (1940), the first African American to have a US Maritime ship named after him (SS Booker T. Washington, 1942), and was the first African American to be featured on US Currency (Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollar, 1946). You can find numerous public schools named after him throughout the United States, and you can visit Booker T. Washington State Park in Nashville, Tennessee.

I recommend reading "Who Was Booker T. Washington?" to learn more about this incredible historical figure. You can read more about the Emancipation Proclamation, and further investigate the Rosenwald Fund and the Rosenwald Schools.

Hampton University and Tuskegee University are Historically Black Universities. There are currently 104 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States. The majority of the institutions are located in the south, where segregation had lasting effects on the communities. HBCUs were created before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the purpose of giving excellent educational opportunities for African Americans.

You can also learn about George Washington Carver, who Washington recruited to teach at Tuskegee University, and the Tuskegee Airmen, an important regiment of fighter pilots during WWII, who were students and graduates of Tuskegee University. There are BrainPops on both Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen.

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