How Did Booker T Washington Influence African Americans

Booker T. Washington was a former slave who rose to become one of the most influential African-Americans intellectuals of the 19th century. Washington believed that African Americans had to educate themselves to live in American society and building a strong economic base was more critical than planning an uproar for equal rights. He was among the most prominent black educator, power broker, and institution builder of his time. Washington offered the doctrine of accommodation to Jim Crow, acquiescing in social and political inequality for blacks while training them for economic self- determination in the industrial arts known as the Atlantic Exposition Address. He encouraged Africa-Americans to be self- reliant and urged them to establish
businesses and improve themselves without causing trouble with whites. Some African- Americans followed the ideas of Booker T. Washington. Many Southern whites also supported Washington because it commendably disarmed any immediate threat posed by African- Americans toward segregation.