U.S. # 1074 was issued to honor the 100th birth anniversary of Booker T. Washington, first president of the Tuskegee Institute. Washington was born a slave on April 5, 1856, on the farm of James Burroughs, in Franklin County, Virginia. The location has been made into a National Park. The post office located there was the site where this commemorative stamp was issued. The log cabin shown on the stamp is a replica built at the plantation. Happy Birthday Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856, in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. Booker grew up on the plantation of James Burroughs with his mother, who worked there as a cook. His father was an unknown white man, likely from a nearby plantation. Booker began working as a child, carrying 100-pound bags of grain to the plantation’s mill. Passing by a nearby school one day, he looked in the window and saw children his age reading, and he longed to do the same.