Booker T. Washington

(noun)

An African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to Republican presidents. He was the dominant leader in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. In contrast to Du Bois, Washington eschewed political equality and called on blacks to progress through education and entrepreneurship.

Related Terms

Examples of Booker T. Washington in the following topics:

  • Marcus Garvey

    • Garvey's philosophy, influenced by Booker T.
    • Washington, Martin Delany, and Henry McNeal Turner, led him to organize the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914.
    • After corresponding with Booker T.
    • Washington, Garvey arrived in the U.S. in 1916 to give a lecture tour.
    • There is a bust of Garvey in the Organization of American States Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C.

  • The Rise of Garveyism

    • Garvey's philosophy was influenced by Booker T.
    • Washington, Martin Delany, and Henry McNeal Turner, which led him to organize the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica in 1914.
    • After corresponding with Booker T.
    • Washington, Garvey arrived in the U.S. in 1916 to give a lecture tour.

  • Theodore Roosevelt and Race

    • They were loyal to the party of Abraham Lincoln, and they also noted that Roosevelt had invited civil rights leader Booker T.
    • Washington to a White House dinner and had spoken out publicly against lynching.

  • Roosevelt, Wilson, and Race

    • In addition to their loyalty to the party of Abraham Lincoln, blacks noted that Roosevelt had invited Booker T.
    • Washington to a White House dinner, and had spoken out publicly against lynching.
    • Wilson did not interfere with the well-established system of Jim Crow, and acquiesced to the demands of southern Democrats that their states be left alone to deal with issues of race and black voting without interference from Washington.

  • The "Color Line"

    • Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta Compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T.
    • Washington in 1895 which provided that southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.

    • Growing up in Atlanta, he attended Booker T.
    • Washington High School.
    • At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.'
    • King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created an "economic bill of rights" for poor Americans.
    • Martin Luther King giving his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

  • Montgomery and Protests

    • Black activists had begun to build a case to challenge state bus segregation laws around the arrest of a 15-year-old girl, Claudette Colvin, a student at Booker T.
    • Washington High School in Montgomery.
    • Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday.
    • But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday.

  • Coxey's Army

    • The workers marched on Washington, D.C., in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in U.S. history up to that time.
    • It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington, and the expression, "Enough food to feed Coxey's Army" originates from this march.
    • The march's western section received the nickname "Kelly's Army," after California leader "General" Charles T.
    • Various groups from around the country gathered to join the march, and its number had grown to 500 with more on the way from further west when it reached Washington on April 30, 1894.
    • The climax of this movement was perhaps on April 21, 1894, when William Hogan and approximately 500 followers commandeered a Northern Pacific Railway train for their trek to Washington, D.C.

  • The Social Gospel

    • Important Social Gospel leaders include Richard T.
    • Ely, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.
    • Portrait of Social Gospeller Washington Gladden, who was an important leader of the movement.

  • The Battle of Bull Run

    • Political pressure forced Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, head of the Army of the Potomac, to launch a campaign against the Confederate Army of Brigadier General P.G.T.
    • The Confederates then launched a strong counterattack, and as the Union troops began withdrawing under fire, many panicked, turning the battle into a rout as McDowell's men frantically ran without order in the direction of Washington, D.C.