Question 1

True or false: Washington advised multiple U.S. presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Accepted Answer

False. He advised Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, but died in 1915, long before FDR took office.

Question 2

True or false: He founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Accepted Answer

False. The NAACP was founded in 1909 by a multiracial group including W.E.B. Du Bois; Washington opposed its confrontational approach.

Question 3

True or false: He was born into slavery and later became the first African American on a U.S. postage stamp.

Accepted Answer

True. Born enslaved in 1856, he appeared on a 1940 stamp—the first African American honored on U.S. postage.

Question 4

True or false: Booker T. Washington graduated from Harvard University with a law degree.

Accepted Answer

False. He never attended Harvard; he graduated from Hampton Institute and later received an honorary degree from Harvard—not a law degree.

Question 5

True or false: Booker T. Washington was the first African American to dine at the White House.

Accepted Answer

True. He dined with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, sparking controversy and marking a historic first for an African American at the White House.

Question 6

True or false: He was a vocal supporter of women’s suffrage and marched in the 1913 women’s parade.

Accepted Answer

False. Washington was not a prominent suffragist and did not march in the 1913 parade; he focused primarily on industrial education and economic advancement.

Question 7

True or false: Washington’s autobiography 'Up from Slavery' was ghostwritten by a white journalist.

Accepted Answer

True. While Washington dictated much of it, editor Max Bennett Thrasher polished the manuscript, though Washington is credited as the sole author.

Question 8

True or false: Washington secretly funded legal challenges to segregation while publicly advocating accommodation.

Accepted Answer

True. He secretly financed court cases against Jim Crow laws, including the 1902 Giles v. Harris voting rights case, despite his public conciliatory stance.

Booker T. Washington Trivia Questions