Rather than requesting or accepting personal gifts, a common practice, he made a deal with the Democratic Party in Montgomery, promising to secure the African-American vote if funding would be provided for a Normal school for African Americans at Tuskegee.

He and a banker, George W Campbell, another former enslaver, skillfully convinced the Alabama Legislature to begin funding US$2,000 (~$54,342 in 2023) annually for a "Negro Normal School in Tuskegee" starting in 1881.

Like Lewis Adams, Dr. Washington embraced the concept that formerly enslaved people needed practical job skills to support themselves and their families.

He secured significant funding from wealthy American philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie, Collis P. Huntington, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Huttleston Rogers.

Another famous African American who taught at the school of Lewis Adams' dreams was Dr. George Washington Carver.