Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In Up from Slavery, Washington recounts the story of his life-from slave to educator. The early sections deal with his upbringing as a slave and his efforts to get an education. Washington details his transition from student to teacher, and outlines his own development as an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In the final chapters of Up From Slavery, Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist.

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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was born a slave on a Virginia farm. Later freed, he headed and developed the Tuskegee Institute and became a leader in education. Widely considered a spokesman for his people, he emphasized social concern in three books as well as his autobiography, Up from Slavery.

Ishmael Reed is one of America's most renowned African American writers. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley. Reed is the award-winning author of more than 20 books-novels, essays, plays, and collections of poetry-that have been translated into seven languages. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has twice been nominated for the National Book Award. Reed lives in Oakland, California.