William Dawson ran away from home at the age of 13 to study at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington to provide practical training for African Americans, the Institute eventually broadened its focus to become an accredited, degree-granting institution. Dawson left there in 1921 to pursue further musical studies in Kansas City and at the American Conservatory in Chicago, but he returned to Tuskegee in 1931 to establish and lead its music department—a move that changed both his focus and his ultimate legacy.