So let's take Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute. Booker Taliafaro Washington was an American political leader. He was an educator. He was an orator.
He was an author. He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. He represented the last generation of black leaders born in slavery. And he's speaking for those blacks who remained in the New South in an exploitative, racist environment with the white Southerners.
Now, Booker T. Washington was able throughout the final 25 years of his life to maintain his standing as the major black leader of the U.S. because of the sponsorship by powerful whites and substantial support within the black community. and his ability to raise educational funds from both groups. But most importantly, Booker T. Washington was known for his accommodation to the social realities of the age of segregation and black codes, to the age of Jim Crow. Washington is going to receive national prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895, attracting the attention of politicians and the public. as a popular spokesperson for African American citizens.
Washington built a nationwide network of supporters in many black communities, with black ministers, educators, and businessmen composing his core enthusiasts. His Atlanta Compromise speech accepted segregation as long as economic development would be allowed in black communities, particularly in agriculture. He argued that blacks and whites should be separate.
And if one resisted the apartheid system, the result would be lynching. So Booker T understood very clearly that to oppose the black codes would mean death. And yet he understood that white supremacy would allow for black economic independence. So Booker T is known for his importance of education to the black population and the significance.
Of the Tuskegee Institute, a historical black colleges that we have today.