Btw, the "Booker" in the blog's name that I cited in my last post refers to Booker T. Washington.

Here's two online biographies of Booker T. Washington:

"Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856, – November 14, 1915) was an American political leader, educator and author. He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915.

Washington was born into slavery to a white father, and a slave mother in Franklin County, Virginia. He eventually learned to read and write while working at manual labor jobs. At the age of sixteen, he went to Hampton, Virginia to Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now Hampton University, to train as a teacher. In 1881, he was named as the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was granted an honorary Masters of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary Doctorate degree from Dartmouth College in 1901.

Washington received national prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895, attracting the attention of politicians and the public as a popular spokesperson for African American citizens. Washington built a nationwide network of supporters in many black communities, with black ministers, educators, and businessmen composing his core supporters. Washington played a dominant role in black politics, winning wide support in the black community and among more liberal whites (especially rich northern whites). He gained access to top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education. Critics called it the "Tuskeegee Machine." Washington was criticized by a relatively few radical blacks of his time period for his failure to embrace a hard line on civil rights issues such as black suffrage. Washington said that confrontation would lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks, and that cooperation with supportive whites was the only way to overcome pervasive racism in the long run. Some of his civil rights work was secret, such as funding court cases. [1] Washington's efforts included cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists, helped raise funds to establish and operate hundreds of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of black persons throughout the South.

In addition to the substantial contributions in the field of education, Dr. Washington did much to improve the overall friendship and working relationship between the races in the United States. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely read today."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington


**

"For decades, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was the major African-American spokesman in the eyes of white America. Born a slave in Virginia, Washington was educated at Hampton Institute, Norfolk, Virginia. He began to work at the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 and built it into a center of learning and industrial and agricultural training.

A handsome man and a forceful speaker, Washington was skilled at politics. Powerful and influential in both the black and white communities, Washington was a confidential advisor to presidents. For years, presidential political appointments of African-Americans were cleared through him. He was funded by Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, dined at the White House with Theodore Roosevelt and family, and was the guest of the Queen of England at Windsor Castle.
Although Washington was an accommodator, he spoke out against lynchings and worked to make "separate" facilities more "equal." Although he advised African-Americans to abide by segregation codes, he often traveled in private railroad cars and stayed in good hotels."

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/bookert.html