What Other Sources Say About Booker T. Washington

"Booker T. Washington, born a slave in 1856, was an exceptional man who came exercise national influence, as well as control of the Republican Party in Alabama, and to stand as a controversial figure in black affairs.  In race relations Washington preached the doctrine of accommodation.  In a famous speech at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, he enunciated his 'Atlanta compromise.'  Blacks should strive for economic independence, he said, and accept, at least for the time being, their political isolation and proscription.  More militant black leaders saw Washington as an "Uncle Tom,' supinely surrendering the black man's civil rights.  Washington was a realist in a bitter time.  It now seems clearer that political rights---however much they are justified and rightfully due to every citizen---are no cure-all or panacea for the social and economic problems of minority or majority groups.  Washington was a conservative in racial matters, but his advice was not in error."
-William Warren Rogers, Robert David Ward, Leah Rawls Atkins, and Wayne Flynt, Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, p. 330-331