The Booker T. Washington National Monument is a National Monument near the community of Hardy, Virginia, and is located entirely in rural Franklin County, Virginia.

[4] It preserves portions of the 207-acre (0.90 km2) tobacco farm on which educator and leader Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856.

Congress authorized the Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollar to fund the purchase of the site.

18 varieties of the coin were produced, and more than 1.5 million were sold (primarily to collectors).

Yet, after the coin's production was finished, the BTW Commission owed more money than it had assets, and the Commonwealth of Virginia had to step in to provide funds to purchase the site.