Booker T. Washington

Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) is an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to Republican presidents.

He is the dominant leader in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915.

Representative of the last generation of black American leaders born in slavery, he speaks on behalf of the large majority of blacks who live n the South but have lost their ability to vote through disfranchisement by southern legislatures.

While his opponents call his powerful network of supporters the "Tuskegee Machine," Washington maintains control because of his ability to gain support of numerous groups including influential whites and the black business, educational and religious communities nationwide.

He advises on financial donations from philanthropists, and avoids antagonizing white Southerners with his accommodation to the political realities of the age of Jim Crow segregation.

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