Social Reformer.  Born a slave on the James Burroughs’s Plantation in Hale’s Ford, Franklin County, Virginia, he was 9 years old when slavery was abolished.  He attended and graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1875.  In 1881 he was selected to head Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which is now Tuskegee University.  Booker believed in hard work, self-education and economic independence. He talks about his childhood in his biography “Up From Slavery”, which was published in 1901.  April 7, 1940, he was the first African American placed on a United States postage stamp. (bio by: Babe)  Family links:  Spouses:  Olivia America Davidson Washington (1854 – 1889)*  Fanny Norton Smith Washington (1858 – 1884)*  Margaret James Murray Washington (1865 – 1925)*  Children:  Portia Marshall Washington Pittman (1883 – 1978)*  Booker Taliaferro Washington (1887 – 1945)*  Ernest “Davidson” Washington (1889 – 1938)* *Calculated relationship