Booker T. Washington bossed what W. E. B. Du Bois called the “Tuskegee Machine,” a network of institutions and surrogates promoting racial accommodation and self-help. Surrogates “edited newspapers, owned businesses, and directed schools modeled on Tuskegee.”

Washington thus wielded “quasi-dictatorial power.” Years before the anti-Bookerites helped establish the NAACP, he controlled many black leaders, shaping Republican patronage for blacks and white philanthropy to African American education. He also proved benevolent. For example, his National Negro Business League assisted dozens of communities in starting banks, stores, and other enterprises. The “Rosenwald Fund School Building Program” was created at and coordinated by Tuskegee Institute.