Following his success as principal of Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington began to address the issues confronting African Americans in the South. Washington was an astute politician. He developed associations with northern business leaders and southern politicians that enabled him to operate Tuskegee as a Black educational institution. As he addressed the concerns of African Americans, he balanced his attack on the injustice of segregation and racial violence with his need to survive in an increasingly racist and violent South. The significant point is that Washington was not silent. He spoke out about the injustice of discrimination and biased suffrage laws and the horror of lynching in language that remained moderate.