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[[image:bookert.jpg|200px|thumb|Booker T. Washington]]

[[image:bookert.jpg|200px|thumb|Booker T. Washington]]

'''Booker Taliaferro Washington''' (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 movement|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 Tuskeegee  Institute, and his emphasis on self-help and education as the cure for poverty and the second class status of blacks in America.  In his "Atlanta Compromise" of 1895 he reluctantly accepted Jim Crow, segregation and disfranchisement in return for black freedom in economic, religious and cultural affairs. Washington was highly popular among top white leaders and most blacks, but his approach was attacked after 1909 as too conservative by [[W.E.B. DuBois]] and the [[NAACP]].  He is held in high regard by black conservatives.

'''Booker Taliaferro Washington''' (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 movement|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 Tuskeegee  Institute, and his emphasis on self-help and education as the cure for poverty and the second class status of blacks in America.  In his "Atlanta Compromise" of 1895 he reluctantly accepted Jim Crow, segregation and disfranchisement in return for black freedom in economic, religious and cultural affairs. Washington was highly popular among top white leaders and most blacks, but his approach was attacked after 1909 as too conservative by [[W.E.B. DuBois]] and the [[NAACP]].  He 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."<ref>C. Vann Woodward, ''The Origins of the New South, 1877-1913'' (1951)</REF>

==Life==

==Life==