Tuskegee Institute

The Tuskegee Institute, which became a university in 1985, is a historically black, private university founded in 1881. After Lewis Adams, a former slave, secured authorization for a black normal school in Tuskegee from the Alabama senate, former slaveowner George Campbell helped find its first principal, Booker T. Washington. Washington took the school to prominence, gaining the institution’s independence. Robert Moton took over after his death, in 1915, and founded the first hospital, the Tuskegee V.A. Hospital in 1923, the first staffed by black professionals. Dr. Frederick Patterson took over in 1935, founded a veterinary school, and built the Tuskegee Airman flight-training program, famous for its World War II contributions. Several presidents have visited the university, George Washington Carver taught there, and it has been declared a National Historic Landmark. See also Washington, Booker T.