The correct answer is to seek an education in order to better themselves and be able to compete with whites and have the intellectual and educational resources to challenge and eliminate segregation and any other racial barriers to their advancement. Indeed, Washington was an educator of great erudition and held several college degrees. He understood that during his time, political agitation in the form of protests and/or ideological confrontation would not be able to bring justice and equality to African Americans.
Since he had been born into slavery, he was aware that the vast majority of African Americans lacked a proper education and were mostly illiterate, which greatly disadvantaged them when trying to assert their rights. He concluded that it was necessary to favor the emergence of an elite of African American middle class leaders who would lead the Civil Rights movement. He was also very astute, as he presented a compromising public persona to Southern white supremacists and secretly funded legal challenges to segregationist laws and regulations.
