From 1890 to 1915, the most influential Black man in America was Booker T. Washington, who less than 35 years earlier had been born into slavery. The young boy worked laboriously until emancipation before going on to seek an education, and by the time he was 40, he was consolidating a network of supporters that came to be known as the “Tuskegee Machine”, helping coordinate action with the support of Black businesses, religious communities, and others. Using his position of power, Washington spoke out against Jim Crow laws and Southern disfranchisement of Blacks. 

Despite being so recognized, and perhaps in part because of it, by the early 20th century, Washington’s tactics were questioned by other Black leaders, notably W.E.B. Du Bois, who wanted to protest more vehemently in an effort to secure civil rights. Washington, 12 years Du Bois’ senior, entered the field of education and founded the famous Tuskegee Institute based on his vision of what a population emerging from generations of slavery required in order to successfully integrate into modern life. His position was simply one of incremental entry by the provision of industrial education and political accommodation. He urged Blacks to accept discrimination in the short term and concentrate on elevating themselves, thereby proving themselves through hard work and material prosperity. Du Bois would have none of that, believing it amounted to an approval of the Jim Crow regime of the South and a passive acceptance of racism.