autobiographies ever written. The mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help which are espoused in "Up From Slavery" inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society. "Up from Slavery" demonstrates Washington's forceful and potent voice in the fight for African-American equality in turn-of-the-century America. This large print edition features and easy-to-read 18-point Arial font, generous margins and spaces between lines as recommended by the National Association for Visually Handicapped (NAVH). The inside pages are white.

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