Booker T. Washington was a famous educator, author, lecturer, and advocate of interracial cooperation. Born near Hale's Ford in Franklin County, Virginia, he spent his early life in Malden, West Virginia, where he worked in the Ruffner Salt Works and for Mrs. Viola Ruffner, whom he credited with inspiring him to seek an education. He graduated from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1875 and returned to Malden to teach school for two years. Later he became an instructor and assistant to the president of his alma mater. In 1881, through his originality, vision, and force, he established at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama the first vocational school for Negroes in America. By emphasizing the training of the hands as much as the mind, he taught the value of vocational education not only to Negro youth but to the world, lifting the veil of ignorance from his people and pointing the way to progress through industry and education.