Booker T. Washington’s philosophy od accommodationist was about the best interests of black people in the post-Reconstruction era could be realized through education in the crafts and industrial skills and the education of the virtues of patience, enterprise, and saving. Washington was one of the important African-American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founding the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. Washington designed, developed, and guided the Tuskegee Institute. It became a powerhouse of African-American education and political influence in the United States. He used the Hampton Institute, with its importance on agricultural and industrial training, as his model. Washington argued that African Americans must concentrate on educating themselves, learning useful trades, and investing …show more content…
He insisted, however, that African Americans be included in the economic progress of the South. Washington confirmed to an all-white audience, "In all things social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things needed to mutual progress. He urged his fellow blacks, most of whom were disadvantaged and uneducated farm labourers, to temporarily leave their efforts to win full civil rights and political power and instead to improve their industrial and farming skills to attain economic security. Blacks would thus accept separation and judgement, but their eventual achievement of wealth and culture would gradually win for them the respect and acceptance of the white community. Most blacks felt comfortable with Washington’s approach, however, and his influence with whites was such that he became an unofficial arbiter determining which black individuals and institutions were deemed worthy to benefit from government support and white philanthropic