Alert: Visitor Center Exhibits Closed: The visitor center exhibit area is closed due to an HVAC replacement project. The park store and park film are still available Wednesdays through Sundays, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
National Monument
Booker T Washington
The main crop on the plantation where Booker T. Washington was born was tobacco. This photograph shows a man with draft horses preparing to plow a field. NPS Photo/ VIP Bill Tucker
Overview
Booker T. Washington was born a slave in April 1856 on the 207-acre farm of James Burroughs. After the Civil War, Washington became the first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School. Later as an adviser, author and orator, his past would influence his philosophies as the most influential African American of his era. Come explore his birthplace.
Take a hike on the Jack-O-Lantern Branch trail and see the forest where Booker T. Washington travelled as a child! You can also get exercise by hiking the entire 1.5 mile trail. The trail starts at the tobacco barn and takes you through a winding path in a deciduous forest. It passes by three creeks until you return to the tobacco barn.
Tobacco field being plowed by man with two draft horsesBack side of kitchen cabin and smokehouse in snow with blue sky and treesFour people dressed as enslaved people in front of the fireplace in cabinKitchen cabin with child in green dress in frontReconstructed kitchen cabin where Booker T. Washington was bornTwo re-enactors portraying enslaved people sitting in front of fire inside kitchen cabinVisitor CenterExhibits on outside of visitor center bathroomsBooker T. Washington Elementary School (Park Headquarters)Park trail and part of pastureHorse in barnWagon coming up trail to farm with people
