History and Legacy of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, 40 miles east of Montgomery, Alabama, was authorized as a unit of the National Park Service on October 26, 1974. The site preserves the legacy and associated historic structures of the historic Tuskegee Institute, a college for African Americans founded in 1881.

On July 4, 1881, 30 eager students, mostly children of former slaves, celebrated their freedom by holding their first class at the newly formed Normal School for Negroes in Tuskegee, Alabama. Although those students did not know what to expect from their new school, its principal did. Booker T. Washington, a former slave, aimed to model this new school after Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he had been a student and teacher.

Tuskegee Institute, as the school here came to be known, started with only $2,000 for teachers’ salaries but no funds for land, buildings, or equipment. In 1882, the school was moved to 100 acres of abandoned plantation farm land (Bowen Estate), purchased with a $250 personal loan from the treasurer of Hampton Institute, J. F. B. Marshall, for the $500 down payment.

From this humble start, Tuskegee grew from its initial emphasis on vocational training (most of the school’s early buildings were built by its students) into the college degree-granting program that evolved into what is now Tuskegee University.

Although Tuskegee Institute’s history has endured more than 130 years, the school’s story often gets obscured behind two of its early guiding figures. As the school’s first principal, Booker T. Washington led Tuskegee Institute through its first 34 years. When not directing the school’s growth, he traveled extensively, making Tuskegee Institute known and respected throughout the country. He eventually became a leader of his race and an advisor to presidents. By the time Washington died in 1915, he had made Tuskegee an internationally famous institution.

Another influential figure forever linked to Tuskegee is George Washington Carver. In 1896, George Washington Carver accepted Washington’s invitation to come to Tuskegee as head of its new Department of Agriculture. For the next 47 years, Carver taught and worked at Tuskegee and developed thousands of uses for Southern agricultural products. He became widely known as an outstanding American scientist. Carver died in 1943, but his legacy lives on in Tuskegee’s George Washington Carver Museum and Carver Research Foundation, which was begun with a bequest from Carver himself.

The main features of Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site are The Oaks, the house and home of Booker T. Washington, and the building that housed George Washington Carver’s laboratory, now the George Washington Carver Museum. These structures, along with an administrative office, are directly owned and managed by the National Park Service. While the park’s 1974 enabling legislation included the residence called Gray Columns, the property was acquired by Tuskegee University in 1998 under Public Law 100-337 and therefore is no longer managed by the National Park Service.

The historic site also encompasses a 50-acre Historic Campus District consisting of most of the original campus buildings, all of which are owned and still actively used by Tuskegee University. Every year, close to 26,000 visitors to the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site experience the history of Tuskegee Institute through guided tours of The Oaks, the Historic Campus District, and the George Washington Carver Museum’s exhibits and audiovisual programs.

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