Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Former slave, Principal of Tuskegee Institute and author of Up From Slavery, Washington delivered the Atlanta Exposition Address on Sept. 18, 1895 at this site, the former auditorium of the Cotton States and International Exposition. Washington delivered this address at the Exposition's Inauguration before a segregated audience, and in an unprecedented departure from regional customs, he shared the platform with Charles Collier, President of the Exposition. In 1894 Washington had joined Collier and other supporters of the exposition in an appearance before the House Committee on Appropriations. Together they secured a $200,000 appropriation from Congress. In addition to serving as a lobbyist for the Exposition, Washington was also an Exposition commissioner and supervised the construction of the Negro Building, the Exposition's site of African American exhibitions formerly located near the 10th Street entrance to Piedmont Park. An alumnus of Hampton Institute and President of the National Negro Business League, Washington became a national leader because of the interracial compromise he proposed in the Atlanta Exposition Address.