Booker T. Washington was a young black male born into the chains of Southern slavery. With the Union victory in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Washington's family and blacks in the United States found hope in a new opportunity, freedom. Washington saw this freedom as an opportunity to pursue practical education. Through perseverance and good fortune, Washington was able to get that education at Hampton National Institute. At Hampton, his experiences and beliefs in industrial education contributed to the success of his foundation at the Tuskegee Institute. The institute became the beacon of light for African American education in the South. Booker T. Washington was an influential voice in the African American community after the Civil War. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington outlines his personal accounts of his life, successes, and struggles. In the autobiography, Washington does not address the struggle of blacks during Reconstruction to escape the Southern stigma that African Americans were only good for work. However, Washington argues that blacks should obtain an industrial education that would enable them to find work meeting the economic needs of the South, gaining moral character and intelligence, and embracing practical work. His arguments are supported by his personal accounts as a student at the Hampton Institute and as an administrator at the Tuskegee Institute. Washington's autobiography is a great source of information on the debate over black education after Reconstruction. The first argument made by Booker T. Washington is that blacks should seek an education that affords them the opportunity to obtain employment by meeting the sp...... middle of paper ......emigrated from the institution through manual labor. Washington successfully argues that manual labor and industrial education could lead to the advancement of the black race following slavery. Although the author provides many personal accounts of the success of the black race, the macroscopic view of the South's perception of blacks is not examined in his work. However, the work provides an excellent source of reference on one of two aspects of the debate over black education during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The author in his work, Up from Slavery, successfully conveys his belief that blacks should prepare for the real-world experiences they would face through an industrial education. Works Cited Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery in Three Negro Classics, John Hope Franklin, Editor. New York: Avon Books, 1999.