Who Was Booker T. Washington?By: James Buckley Jr., Who HQ Illustrator: Jake Murray Series: Who Was? Learn how a slave became one of the leading influential African American intellectuals of the late 19th century. African American educator, author, speaker, and advisor to presidents of the United States, Booker Taliaferro Washington was the leading voice of former slaves and their descendants during the late 1800s. As part of the last generation of leaders born into slavery,