Lewis Adams
Lewis Adams was an African American former slave in Macon County, Alabama who is best-remembered for helping found the normal school which grew to become Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama.
Little is known of his early life, However, despite having no formal education, Adams could read, write and speak several languages. He was an experienced tinsmith, harness maker and shoemaker. He was also an acknowledged leader of the African-American community in the county.
Adams was especially concerned that, without an education, the recently freed former slaves would not be able to support themselves. However, at the time, there were no institutions to teach them essential skills. When approached by a white candidate seeking elections to the Alabama Senate, he made a deal with the Democratic Party in Montgomery, promising to secure the African-American vote if funding would be provided for a school at Tuskegee. His skillful political negotiation, leadership and vision of a school worked, and funding for a "Negro Normal School in Tuskegee" was made available by the state legislature in 1881. (Normal schools were so named because they taught future teachers educational standards or norms).
Another former slave, Booker T. Washington, was recruited upon recommendation of another normal school in Hampton, Virginia to become the first principal. From a beginning in borrowed space in a local church, the school moved in 1882 to 100 acres of plantation farmland, purchased with a $200 personal loan from the treasurer of Washington's former school (which eventually grew to become Hampton University).
Like Lewis Adams, Dr. Washington also embraced the concept that former slaves needed practical job skills to support themselves and their families. In addition to building Tuskegee, he became a famous orator and secured major funding from wealth Americans such as industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, Andrew Carnegie, Collis P. Huntington, and John D. Rockefeller. Despite his travels and widespread work, Dr. Washington remained as principal of Tuskegee until his death in 1915 at the age of 59.
Another famous African-American who attended the school of Lewis Adams' dreams was Dr. George Washington Carver.
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