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Martin Luther King Jr. was a person who saw the feuding between races from a larger perspective than most other people. Did King only want African-Americans to gain rights and prominence? Absolutely not! King preached for the human race, as a whole, to bond together and to see each other as equals.
Booker T. Washington also saw things from a similar perspective. In a time when racial tension was high and racial division was obvious, Washington appreciated all people, regardless of race. Never once did Washington curse racial discrimination. Never once did he call for revenge upon whites. In fact, he had a very unique take upon whites usually.
On page six in his book Up From Slavery, Washington states his position on white people and enslavement:
One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was bitter feeling toward the white people on the part of my race, because of the fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was successful. In the case the slaves on our place this was not true, and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency. During the Civil War one of my young masters was killed, and two were severely wounded. I recall the feeling of sorrow, which existed among the slaves when they heard of the death of "Mars' Billy." It was no sham sorrow, but real. Some of the slaves had nursed "Mars' Billy" but had begged for mercy in the case of others when the overseer or master was thrashing them. The sorrow in the slave quarter was only second to that in the "big house." When the two young masters were brought home wounded, the sympathy of the slaves was shown in many ways. They were just as anxious to assist in the nursing as the family relatives of the wounded. Some of the slaves would even beg for the privilege of sitting up at night to nurse their wounded masters.
This is a beautiful showing of the understanding and connectedness that Washington had regarding slavery. In another part of the same chapter, he talked about how slavery was a part of society. His slave owners were just going along with the societal traditions that had been set forth generations previous to theirs. In fact, some slaves actually had a strong respect and loyalty to their masters, as depicted in that passage.
Even when the Emancipation Proclamation was manifested and slaves were freed, some slaves were upset to leave their masters. Washington recounts a slave who owed his master $300. The Emancipation allowed this debt to be cleared; however, the slave paid back the $300 in full, because he claimed to be a "man who'd never broken his word." The slave could have very easily gone along with the debt-guidelines that the Emancipation set forth or justified not paying it back as repayment for being enslaved.
This slave showed amazing responsibility and composure for someone who was still breathing his first breaths of freedom. Many other slaves weren't as well minded, as Washington recounts this on page 9 of the aforementioned book:
The slaves, of course, had little personal interest in the life of the plantation, and their ignorance prevented them from learning how to do things in the most improved and thorough manner. As a result of the system, fences were out of repair, gates were hanging half off the hinges, doors creaked, window-panes were out, plastering had fad fallen but was not replaced, weeds grew in the yard.
These slaves were so used to relying upon their masters for such instructions or services that they had never gained the knowledge or composure to do any of that.
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