Tuskegee University!

What Is Tuskegee University?

Tuskegee University, formerly the Tuskegee Institute, is one of the nation’s most significant schools built and run, by and for, Black folks!

What Makes It Historical?

The Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers opened on July 4, 1881 as the result of a political deal between former Confederate colonel, W.F. Foster, and local black leader, Lewis Adams! That deal gave the school $2,000 in state funding for teacher salaries but nothing for land or buildings, so the first classes were held on the grounds of the Butler Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. That changed with the recruitment of Booker T. Washington as first principal!

A tireless fundraiser, Mr. Washington purchased a 1,000-acre former plantation in 1882, recruiting Black landscaper, David Williston, and first Black MIT graduate, Robert Taylor, to lay out the campus and its buildings! With a major emphasis on self reliance, many of the Tuskegee buildings were hand built by students as part of a work study program! Tuskegee also hired George Washington Carver as Director of the Agricultural Department! Agriculture being a major focus at Tuskegee, Mr. Carver created an extensive program for Black farmers and homemakers, with all new approaches to cultivation, food preparation, and preservation!

After Mr. Washington died in 1915, he left the Institute a $1.5 million endowment (over $42 million today), which would be important as the South changed after World War I. For starters, industry began to replace agriculture, and many Black folks were fleeing the land of Jim Crow in the First Great Migration of 1910–1940! This required diversification in the courses offered at Tuskegee, like aviation training, which drew the attention of the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941. Since the military was still segregated, Tuskegee was chosen as a training facility for the first Black military aviators, the Tuskegee Airmen! There were 992 of them in total, and they flew 1,578 combat missions during World War II, mostly in Sicily and North Africa!

During this time, the US Public Health Service and CDC also collaborated with Tuskegee on one of the worst medical ethics violations in history! In this 40-year study, a research team recruited 600 poor, Black sharecroppers, of whom 399 had syphilis, and planned to observe the effects of the disease on the body if left untreated. Participants were not told they had syphilis, and they were denied access to penicillin when that was proven to be an effective treatment. 28 patients died from the disease, and 100 more died of complications. This originally 6-month program finally ended in 1972 when a whistleblower named Peter Buxtun leaked to the press!

Today, the Tuskegee Institute is now Tuskegee University, with five colleges including the only veterinary program at a historically black university to offer a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree! Its historic buildings have been part of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site since 1974!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Volunteer at Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site!
Donate to Tuskegee University!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!