The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of the AfricanAmerican leader of the XIX–XX centuries – Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) aimed to protect the civil and political rights of the Black American population. A well-known public person, B. T. Washington promoted his accommodation policy based on the interracial compromise. Its goal was the temporary renunciation by the African-Americans of the political and social equality in the Southern states in order to achieve the material progress.