(1856-1915) was the most important political and educational leader of the African-American community 1890-1915. He was the most important black leader of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency set the goals for the black community. He is most famous for his autobiography, Up from Slavery, his leadership of black conservative business and religious leaders, his founding of the Tuskegee Institute, and his emphasis on self-help and education as the cure for poverty and the second class status of blacks in America.
His “Atlanta Exposition” speech of 1895 appealed to middle class whites across the South, asking them to give blacks a chance to work and develop separately, while implicitly accepting Jim Crow and promising not to demand the vote. White leaders across the North, from politicians to industrialists, from philanthropists to churchmen, enthusiastically supported Washington, as did most middle class blacks and some white Southern leaders. Washington built a personal organization, over which he exerted very tight control, that linked like-minded black leaders throughout the nation and in effect spoke for Black America and worked behind the scenes to lessen the impact of segregation. His network fell apart after his death. Meanwhile, a more militant northern group, led by W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP rejected Washington’s self-help and demanded political activism, referring to the speech dismissively as “The Atlanta Compromise”. The critics were marginalized until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, at which point more radical black leaders rejected Washington’s philosophy and demanded federal civil rights laws.
Washington is held in high regard by conservatives, both white and black. As C. Vann Woodward concluded, “The businessman’s gospel of free enterprise, competition, and laissez faire never had a more loyal exponent.” Read more at Conservapedia…
