Tuskegee Normal School

In the year of 1881, The Tuskegee Normal School was founded for colored teachers, which provided practical training for African Americans and helped them develop economic self-reliance through the mastery of manual trades and agricultural skills. Tuskegee's mission has always been service to people, not education for its own sake. It was the only historically black college or university to be privately controlled in Tuskegee, Alabama. The university is home to over 3,100 students from the U.S and other foreign countries in the world. The school underwent a series of name changes and was known as the Tuskegee Institute from 1937 to 1985.
The institution was founded by educator Booker T. Washington in 1881, and he served as the school’s principal until his death in 1915. He was buried on campus, and his home, The Oaks, is maintained there. The school expressed Washington’s dedication to the pursuit of self-reliance. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (the school’s fourth name) was established as a school for training African American teachers who was approved by the Alabama state legislature in 1880. In the 1920s, Tuskegee shifted from professional education to academic higher education and became an authorized, degree-granting institute. It was later renamed Tuskegee Institute in 1937 and began offering graduate-level instruction in 1943. The
While it focuses on helping to develop human resources primarily within the African American community, it is open to all. It enrolls more than 3,000 students and employs approximately 900 faculty and support personnel. In 1985, the Tuskegee Institute achieved university status and was later renamed to Tuskegee University. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has come overcome while trying to succeed” (Booker T.