Once a slave, what influential African American advised the likes of presidents Roosevelt and Taft?

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way," Booker T. Washington once said – and he should know; he practiced what he preached. Coming out of slavery into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Booker T. Washington served as an educator to the people and to U.S. presidents alike, advising the latter in the White House. Washington was a slave amongst the last generation of slaves, and he became the voice of the African-American community, as slavery turned to segregation and disenfranchisement in the South.

Asked by Jessica Holom · Last updated 5 years ago · 4.5K views · SOURCE