Booker T. Washington was a stronger advocate for African Americans. Washington was determined to make change, recognized compromise was necessary and believed that gradual equality was beneficial. Although he never publicly challenged segregation, he was smart enough to know he could not achieve all goals at once. He focused on African American education, and therefore allowed educated African Americans to take the stand against segregation if they so chose. He created a ladder of a sort, recognizing that they were going to have to climb to reach the top. He was able to identify that African Americans at the time were “ignorant and inexperienced, it [was] not strange that in the first years of [their] freedom [they] began at the top instead