Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an
American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the
dominant figure in the African American community in the United States
from 1890 to 1915. He was representative of the last generation of black
leaders born in slavery and spoke on behalf of blacks living in the
South. Washington was able throughout the final 25 years of his life to
maintain his standing as the major black leader because of the
sponsorship by powerful whites, substantial support within the black
community, his ability to raise educational funds from both groups, and
his accommodation to the social realities of the age of Jim Crow
segregation
