After the Civil War, he worked in salt furnaces and coal mines in Malden, and attended school part time, until, at 16, he was able to enter the Hampton Institute.
Under his direction Tuskegee Institute became one of the leading African-American educational institutions in America. Its programs made industrial training as a means to attaining self-respect and economic independence for black people and Washington continued to teach self-help and self-sufficiency as the most effective means of improving life for African Americans.
Washington gave many lectures in the interests of his work in the United States and in Europe.He was named public speakers of his time. In 1895 at Atlanta, Washington made a highly controversial speech.