TUSKEGEE

city, seat of Macon county, east-central Alabama, U.S., adjacent to the Tuskegee National Forest. It was founded in 1833, and its name was a variation of Taskigi, a nearby Indian village. Fort Decatur (founded 1815), 8 miles (13 km) north-northwest on the Tallapoosa River, was the headquarters for John Sevier, a noted frontiersman who was appointed commissioner to determine the boundary of the Creek Indian lands. The city is best known as the seat of Tuskegee University, which was originally incorporated in 1881 as the Tuskegee Normal School, a coeducational school for training black teachers and now a private institution of higher learning, largely but not exclusively for blacks. The noted educator Booker T. Washington was principal of the school from its founding until his death in 1915. The city of Tuskegee has cottonseed-oil mills, planing mills, gristmills, and a fertilizer factory. Inc. 1843. Pop. (1990) 12,257; (1994 est.) 12,143.