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Article: Washington, Booker T. 1856-1915
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- American Decades
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WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. 1856-1915
African american political leader and educator
Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington was the most influential African American political, social, and educational leader of the 1900s . As head of the Tuskegee Institute and founder of the National Negro Business League he shaped an accommodationist strategy to cope with segregation and discrimination and became the center of a fierce debate among black leaders and intellectuals. He was born the son of a slave woman and a white father, whose identity he never learned, on a small farm in western Virginia in 1856. As a child Washington, who was taught the virtues of frugality, cleanliness, and personal ...