Booker T. Washington Biography - Inspiring Life Story of the African-American Educator & Leader | Perfect for History Studies, School Projects & Civil Rights Education

Booker T. Washington holds a Carnegie Hall audience spellbound during his Tuskegee Institute silver anniversary lecture, January 22, 1906. Mark Twain is seated just behind Washington. Carnegie Hall was filled to capacity for the event to raise money to support the education of African-Americans in the South.

The Times wrote, "Women in brilliant gowns, resplendent with jewels, and men in evening dress filled the boxes. Despite the avowed object of the meeting - to get money from the audience and others - there was an atmosphere of good humor and light-heartedness. Mark Twain's "teachings" were met with such volleys of laughter that the man who never grows old could hardly find intervals in which to deliver is precepts."