A. Founding the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
The school was begun in 1881 by Lewis Adams (a former slave) and George Campbell (a former slave owner) -- they also could be referred to as founders of the Institute. Booker T. Washington was hired to serve as its first principal--a post he held from 1881 to 1915. The school was originally called The Normal School for Colored Teachers at Tuskegee. ("Normal schools" were teacher-training colleges.) Early in its history, the school's name was changed to The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, to reflect the labor training students also took part in at the school. In the Preface to Tuskegee and Its People, Washington listed the sorts of occupational training that students received at the Tuskegee Institute. He wrote: "At the school, in addition to the regular Normal School course of academic work, thirty-six industries are taught the young men and women. These are: Agriculture; Basketry; Blacksmithing; Bee-keeping; Brickmasonry; Plastering; Brick-making; Carpentry; Carriage Trimming; Cooking; Dairying; Architectural, Freehand, and Mechanical Drawing; Dressmaking; Electrical and Steam Engineering; Founding; Harness-making; Housekeeping; Horticulture; Canning; Plain Sewing; Laundering; Machinery; Mattress-making; Millinery; Nurse Training; Painting; Sawmilling; Shoemaking; Printing; Stock-raising; Tailoring; Tinning; and Wheelwrighting."
