“Equality Through Knowledge” Born a slave, rose to become a commonly recognized leader of the Negro race in America. Washington continually strove to be successful and to show other black men and women how they too could raise themselves. Washington’s method of uplifting was education of the head, the hand, and the heart. From his founding of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to his death in 1915 exerted a tremendous influence on the people that surrounded him. With his emphasis on industrial education Washington’s a ....