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Tuskegee University (www.tuskegee.edu) is a national, independent, and state-related university located in the rural east Alabama town of Tuskegee. It developed through the efforts of Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a former slave owner, who saw in the late 1870s a need for the education of African-Americans in rural Macon County, Alabama. At the shop he learned the skills of tin smithing, harness making and shoemaking. In addition, he taught himself how to read and write by going over lessons that the Adam’s children received from a hired tutor. With the end of the Civil War, Adams left home and created his own shop in Tuskegee. His rendered services that were much needed in the community and his reputation improved race relations in Reconstruction Era Tuskegee. He saw the void in Tuskegee and the wider Macon County for a school to educate former slaves. Alabama Representatives Colonel Wilbur F. Foster and Mr. Arthur L. Brooks knew that their seats were vulnerable in the upcoming 1880 election. They reached out to Lewis Adams and in exchange for the black vote, they would help pass legislation to start a vocational school. Foster and Brooks were successfully reelected into office. True to their word, they passed House Bill 165 that created Tuskegee State Normal School. Adams, M.B. Swanson, and George Campbell formed Tuskegee’s first Board of Commissioners and was able to acquire two thousand dollars for the school. He also worked alongside George W. Campbell to get a young Booker T. Washington from Hampton 

 Its founding principal and president, Booker T. Washington, saw the education of Tuskegee’s students through a three-tiered notion of a healthy “head, hand and heart.”  More than 135 years later, this philosophy continues to permeate every aspect of the school’s teaching and training. Students should have a strong education within the context of hard work, built on a sturdy framework of morality, charity and earnestness. Founded on July 4, 1881, with initial state funding for teachers’ salaries, then-Tuskegee Normal Institute for Teachers immediately grew to prominence under Washington’s leadership. As a contemporary historically black university, it is rooted in a history of successfully educating African-American men and women — and students of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds — to understand themselves against a background of a rich academic heritage and the promise of their individual and collective futures. Its mission remains preparing generations of students for effective professional and leadership roles in society.