Booker T. Washington (portrayed by Michael Braugher) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary black elite. In The Gilded Age, Peggy Scott and Thomas T. Fortune visit Booker T. Washington to write a news article to the New York Globe about a dormitory he opens at The Tuskegee State Normal School. Like Thomas, he was born into slavery.