The influential civil rights leader who focused on education and economic advancement was Booker T. Washington. He advocated for African Americans to attain vocational skills and economic self-sufficiency as a means to gain respect and rights. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute to promote industrial education for black students. He believed that gradual progress through education and economic stability would lead to civil rights, contrasting with more immediate demands from other leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois.