Why'd Booker T. Washington become a civil rights activist?

At one of Booker's jobs in a regional coal mine, he first overheard two workers address the Hampton Institute. It was a school for previous slaves in southeastern Virginia founded by General Samuel Chapman. Chapman had been a general of black troops for the Union during the Civil War and was dedicated to improving educational opportunities for African Americans.

Booker wanted to be just like Samuel, so in the year 1872, Washington walked 500 miles to Hampton. He went on to study at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D. C. Booker had fascinated and satisfied Samuel Chapman, so he was invited to return to Hampton as a teacher in the year 1879. Chapman suggested Washington for a role as an administrator of a new academy for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was called the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.