A picture was published of the occasion, which angered many whites who were offended by the idea of a Black American being entertained in the White House. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to the White House. President William McKinley visited the Tuskegee Institute and lauded Washington, promoting him as a black leader who would not be perceived as too "radical" to whites. He gained access to presidents, top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education.
Throughout his adult life, Washington played a dominant role in the African American community and worked tirelessly to improve the lives of blacks, many of whom were born in slavery. "Cast down your buckets where you are," he exhorted his fellow African Americans in the speech. He renounced agitation and protest tactics, and urged blacks to subordinate demands for political and equal rights, and concentrate instead on improving job skills and usefulness through manual labor. Washington's speech stressed accommodation rather than resistance to the segregated system under which African Americans lived. Those words were spoken on Septemat the Cotton States and International Exposition held in Atlanta, Georgia, known as the Atlanta Exposition. Washington believed that once it was apparent to whites that blacks would "contribute to the market place of the world," and be content with living "by the production of our hands," the barriers of racial inequality and social injustice would begin to erode. The Tuskegee Institute was the embodiment of Washington's over-arching belief that African Americans should eschew political agitation for civil rights in favor of industrial education and agricultural expertise. His driving personality led a group of businessmen to ask if he would take the lead in creating the school.
He is, perhaps, best remembered as the head of the world famous Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, founded in 1881, and known today as Tuskegee University. The vision of that schoolroom and the idea that learning was "paradise" would provide lifelong inspiration for Washington. The picture of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression on me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise." "I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books. In his 1900 autobiography, Up From Slavery, Booker T.
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