Booker T. Washington was one of the most well-known African American educators of all time. Lessons from his life recordings and novelistic writings are still being talked and learned about today. His ideas of the accommodation of the Negro people and the instillation of a good work ethic into every student are opposed, though, by some well-known critics of both past and current times. They state their cases by claiming the Negro’s should not have stayed quiet and worked their way to wear they did, they should have demanded equal treatment from the southern whites and claimed what was previously promised to them. Also, they state that Washington did not really care about equality or respect, but about a status boost in his own life. Both …show more content…
There were laws against them and what they were or were not allowed to do and they were most definitely treated differently by their pale skinned neighbors. White southerners would never own them physically ever again, but they would own them mentally. Washington made his life’s purpose to get past the mind games and help other Negroes like himself do the same. They needed to work their way up and earn respect because there wasn’t a chance that the southerners were just going to give it to them. Washington acknowledged that forcing others into undeserved respect was never going to work when he stated, “The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing" (682). His people had to suffer. They had to start at the bottom and work their way up to the top day after day. Nothing came easy to them. In the first half of this quote, Washington makes it clear he believes that being pesky and bothersome about social status and fairness is a waste of time. One is just expelling breathe into the air when they worry about little things that do not matter in the long run of most people’s lives. He instead praises progress, defining it not only as the one thing that everyone should aspire for, but as the wonderful enjoyment of having failed and struggled many times, yet
Washington was often looked at as an “Uncle Tom” because of the things he did, such as advising blacks to remain in the South and to avoid politics and protest in favor of economic self-help and industrial education. He eventually became a powerful political boss, friend of white businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, and advisor of some presidents. Washington publicly accepted without protest racial segregation and voting discrimination, but secretly financed and directed many court suits against such proscriptions of civil rights. To Washington his ideas was obvious and clear, by earning the respect of whites they would either help blacks or deal with their crime against humanity that will eventually bring them down.
The policy Washington is advocating is separate but not equal. He saying that we can learn to live with each other on one hand, yet being as separate and unequal as fingers.
The end of the Civil War was followed almost immediately by a new wave that would see the African Americans face great suffering and discrimination. As newly freed slaves, African Americans were presented with a dilemma to either curve a new niche in a society that once viewed and treated them as mere properties than humans. It was during these difficult times that two key figures in the African American History rose as paramount leaders of two sharply contrasting philosophical camps. The Massachusettian William Edward Burghardt and the Virginian Booker T. Washington, both held two completely contrasting proposals about the best approach for African American to overcome and thrive in the mist of their suffering and racial discrimination. Although their approaches greatly differed, both of these noble men shared a common goal in uplifting the black community in history. The aim of this paper is to argue in the contrasting philosophies of these two key figures in the history of African America.
of the races, and accommodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. Washington believed in education, industrial and farming skills and themes of patience, owning busineses and thrift. This, he belived, would win the respect of whites and lead to African Americans being fully accepted as citizens and integrated into all stagesof society. Washington's thinking was one of accommodation to white oppression. He advised blacks to trust southern whites and accept the fact of white supremacy. He stressed the interdependence of blacks and whites in the South, but said they were to remain socially separate: One of Washington's famous quotes was "In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." Up from slaves 1901p.Washington counseled blacks to remain in the South, obtain a useful education, save their money, work hard, and purchase property. By doing such things, Washington believed, the Negro could one day be a full fledge citizen.
For African Americans, Jim Crow laws encompassed and affected every part of American life. The racial slur synonymous with negro and the laws used to discriminate against them. Two of the most recognizable figures advocating against of Jim Crow were Booker T. Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Though they lived through different times, they both shared the same goal of bettering circumstances of the African Americans people. While sharing a same common goal, Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. had different approaches to confronting the color line, each approach with its positive and negative attributes.
Booker T. Washington was educator and a civil rights activist. In May 23, 1901 he wrote a letter to Alabama Constitutional Convention, regarding the African American (black) race. Within the letter he states how he wishes for blacks to be represented, as during this time, they did not have a voice in any public affairs. During this era of segregation, Booker T. Washington’s intent was for his letter to sway the minds of the Alabama Committee. With his letter, Washington displayed his concerns; He wanted African Americans to have a say in society, ease tension between the whites and black races, and explain the role and contributions of the black race to the members of the Alabama Constitution Convention.
Following the Civil War, while black Americans were freed from slavery, general attitudes towards blacks hardly changed. Blacks were still heavily discriminated against and because of the Jim Crow laws, were legally segregated from white Americans until the mid-20th century. Now, blacks in America enjoy all the same legal rights as whites, and while racial discrimination still exists today, it is not nearly as potent as the discrimination that existed before. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois were two educated black Americans who wrote around the early 1900s on the topic of racial discrimination and what blacks ought to do about their situations. In Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, he argues that blacks should put aside the immediate
Booker T. Washington’s philosophy and actions betrayed the interests of African Americans because he was more interested on the blacks getting educated and getting the respect of the white authorities, instead of worrying on getting their political and social equality right away, which was the main interest of the African Americans. In “The Atlanta Exposition Address”, Washington said that blacks would sacrifice their civil rights and social equality for the time being, as long as whites guaranteed that they would receive industrial education and jobs because he believed that in order to fully obtain equality, the blacks should improve themselves. “It is at the bottom of
The book, Up From Slavery, written by Booker Taliaferro Washington, profoundly touched me when I read it. Washington overcame many obstacles throughout his life. He became perhaps the most prominent black leader of his time. Booker T. Washington belived that African Americans could gain equality by improving their economic situation through education rather than by demanding equal rights.
The autobiography of Booker T. Washing titled Up From Slavery is a rich narrative of the man's life from slavery to one of the founders of the Tuskegee Institute. The book takes us through one of the most dynamic periods in this country's history, especially African Americans. I am very interested in the period following the Civil War and especially in the transformation of African Americans from slaves to freemen. Up From Slavery provides a great deal of information on this time period and helped me to better understand the transition. Up From Slavery provided a narrative on Washington's life, as well as his views on education and integration of African Americans. All though this book was
Booker T. Washington was born, into slavery, on April 5th, 1856 in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. He was nine years old when his family was emancipated, and they moved to West Virginia. It wasn’t until after he moved that he began to receive an education. He eventually graduated from the Hampton Institute; he worked through the time he was in school in order to pay for his education. He went on to later become the leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama – a position he held until the day he died. He made huge contributions in the African-American community, and was one of their strongest leaders in the fight for their rights. He advocated strongly for the right to education and for social issues.
and got a job as a waiter. Soon after this period of time he got a
This quote expresses Washington’s idea of the role black citizens play in American society. As founder of Tuskegee University, his focus was education through industrialism. He viewed politics as reserved for the white elite. Washington believed that African-Americans were to live simple lives in silence. Being quiet in the face of the government was a way to not disrupt the superiority complex of southern whites.
Booker T. Washington was born as a slave in 1856. He was freed in 1865 and then later attended Hampton institute. One day he overheard a conversation between two miners about a great school in Virginia. AS he learned more about the school. He became more determined to go there. He was so determined that, he wanted to go there doesn;t matter what was the cost. On his journey, he was tired, hungry, exhausted and out of money but that didn’t stop him. His determination to go there kept him going. He took the job of a janitor in order to pay for him board, but he didn;t wanted to be just a janitor. He wanted be the best among them all.
Throughout the life of Booker T. Washington expressed in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, one element has remained the same through his influences, education, public speaking, and teaching of others. This is the fact that one cannot succeed solely on a “book” education, but must accompany this with that of an “industrial” education as well. He believed that with this type of education, the black man could provide necessary services not only for himself, but also for those in his community as well. Washington was born on a slave plantation in either 1858 or 1859 in Franklin County, Virginia. He grew up with his mother, his brother John, and his sister Amanda. They lived in an extremely small log