Booker T. Washington

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company”

Booker T. Washington, born 5 April 1856.

African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents. Representative of the last generation of black American leaders born in slavery, he spoke on behalf of the large majority of blacks who lived in the South but had lost their ability to vote through disfranchisement by southern legislatures.