Races, Negroes: United States. Alabama. Tuskegee. Tuskegee Institute: Agencies Promoting Assimilation of the Negro. Training for Commercial and Industrial Employment. Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama: Dorothy Hall. Devoted to the industries for young women. All the work upon the building was done by students. 1902

Curator: This intriguing image, taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, is titled "Races, Negroes: United States. Alabama. Tuskegee." It depicts Dorothy Hall at the Tuskegee Institute. Editor: The building's imposing scale, especially in this monochrome print, conveys a sense of institutional weight and permanence. It seems to dominate the landscape. Curator: Absolutely. And the inscription notes the students themselves constructed the building. This speaks volumes about the Tuskegee Institute's mission to instill practical skills and self-sufficiency within the Black community during a period of intense racial segregation. Editor: It foregrounds the physical labor involved in creating these spaces of learning, blurring the lines between education and production, and between student and builder. What was taught inside those walls was also actively being produced outside of it. Curator: Precisely. It really encapsulates the complex narrative of Black education in the Jim Crow South, the intersections of race, labor, and the pursuit of self-determination. Editor: A vital reminder of the power of collective creation and the enduring legacy of hands-on learning.