Before the U.S. Civil War, vocational education was relegated to apprenticeship training and a few scattered schools dedicated to the purpose. The Civil War brought widespread death and destruction throughout the South. By the end of the war, half of the land mass and population of the reunited United States of America had been destroyed. A major portion of the remaining population was illiterate. A large number of workers needed skill training for employment, especially in the emerging industrial era. Model schools, such as the Hampton Institute (Virginia), sent graduates to start schools in the South. The most famous of these graduates was Booker T. Washington, who founded the Tuskegee Institute (Alabama). During the early 1900s, southern senators and representatives authored federal legislation that catapulted vocational educators into the position of the U.S. employment and training specialists. (Author/KC)