At the turn of the nineteenth century, Booker T. Washington emerged as the successor to Frederick Douglass as the leading African American reformer. His personal story was compelling. He was born a slave in Virginia in 1856; through hard work and determination, he obtained an education at Hampton Institute, a school in Hampton, Virginia, established for black and Native American students after the Civil War. In 1881 he was named director of the Tuskegee Institute, an industrial college in rural Alabama. Washington remained at Tuskegee until his death in 1915.

While fund-raising for Tuskegee, Washington traveled widely. His speeches caught the attention of politicians, educators, and newspaper editors. By the time he published his autobiography, Up from Slavery, in 1901, he had become the leading spokesman for America's black citizens.

In his speeches and writings, Washington pressed the Tuskegee mission: Black Americans must focus on...