Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Booker T. Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute in Virginia, graduating in 1875. Teaching children by day and adults at night, he lived his belief of a need for education. In 1881 Booker T. Washington was named principal of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Through compromise, he gained the financial support he needed to keep the school afloat. His compromises often want against popular beliefs of African Americans: advocating an end to the fight for civil rights and more effort toward building businesses and farms. He also supported racial segregation.