In the summer of 1899, Booker T. Washington visited Europe to rest from his demanding schedule. Yet everywhere he turned, he encountered French and American scholars, politicians, businessmen, abolitionists, and average citizens eager to hear him tell the story of his life. The former slave had earned a college degree, taught at the black freedman college Hampton Institute, gained a national reputation touring the country as an educational lecturer, founded a successful industrial college for African Americans, received an honorary degree from Harvard, and delivered a single speech that was heard across the country and which transformed Americans understanding of their racial problems. This is his life story

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