His conciliatory approach won the enthusiastic
support of the solid South as well as that of influential
Northern politicians and industrialists, Their backing gained him
a national reputation and provided him with easy access to the
press. Members of his own community were filled with pride to see
one of their own treated with such respect by wealthy and
influential leaders of white America. When Theodore Roosevelt
entertained Washington for dinner at the White House, the Afro-
American community was overjoyed. However, some whites believed
that it had been a dangerous breach of etiquette. Nevertheless,
there were those within the Afro-American community who were not
enthusiastic about their new leader. They believed that
conciliation was the road to surrender and not the way to
victory.
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856. His
mother had been a slave in Franklin County, Virginia. The
identity of his white father remains unknown. After Emancipation
the family moved to West Virginia where it struggled to achieve a
livelihood. Young Booker attended a school for the children of
ex-slaves while, at the same time, holding down a full-time job
in the mines.
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