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¶ … Washington Do?
Booker T. Washington faced the same, if not worse, treatment of his fellow African-American citizens when he penned his 1901 autobiography Up From Slavery. During his lifetime, Washington witnessed the utter failure of Reconstruction to bring about appreciable change or socioeconomic progress in the South. Although he recognized rank oppression and racism as being unfortunate parts of American history, the title of his book reflects the optimistic attitude of Washington. Washington hoped that through education and a willingness to work hard, African-Americans could achieve racial parity and upward social mobility. Because he also believed in obedience to the law and social harmony, Washington would be dismayed to see videos of police officers using unnecessary force on young people of all races. When faced with the truth of racism in the 21st century in America, Washington would be forced to contend with ongoing debates on how to address race relations so long after the end of slavery. Washington believed "few things, if any, are capable of making one so blind and narrow as race prejudice," (111). However, Washington also believed that African-Americans needed to avail themselves of a quality education in order to uplift...
Washington's approach can be called idealistic, and he would have advocated collective empowerment against abuses of power by police.
Because Booker T. Washington believed in "a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law," he would not condone riots and other acts of violence as a collective expression of anger (109). Like Dr. King after him, Booker T. Washington hoped for harmonious and peaceful resolutions to racial crises in America. Yet Washington seemed remarkably idealistic and even naive, and yet he was right that a lack of empowerment is the root cause of problems like police brutality and government corruption. Police brutality is a systemic problem. The abuse of power police brutality represents shows that Washington was right: the American public might be too ignorant or uneducated to vote. He states, " I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the protection of the ballot in many of the states," (Washington 115). By this, Washington meant that people in the South of all races should have to pass a test proving capacity to vote. The majority of Americans refrain from voting altogether, and those that do are…
Work Cited
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. Dover, 1995.
Booker T. Washington The inspiring stories that Booker T. Washington shares with readers in his turn of the century book of articles, Up From Slavery should be required reading for American high school students. The book's more poignant stories should be as much a part of a high school student's studies as the reasons for the Civil War, as the important players in the Civil Rights Movement. Well before the Civil
He was opposed to Segregation and refused to accommodate the views of bigoted White Southerners. (Souls, 248). Leadership in the African-American communities of the United States -- DuBois' took a more symbolic, elitist approach to leadership than Washington. His organizations, the Niagara Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, were started as small councils of influential leaders and citizens. The NAACP effects change primarily through legal
He wanted the Black people to "cast their buckets where they are." (Parish) The Atlanta Compromise was significant because it made Washington extremely well-known and well-liked among Whites and it helped him in getting a lot of money for his establishment, Tuskegee Institute. It was also imperative because there were other African-Americans who were being aggressive in challenging White supremacy and teaching Black and White people diverse thoughts about
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois present opposing representations of the diametrically opposed philosophies that came to define African-American culture in the United States during the upheaval of Reconstruction. Washington, in his autobiography Up From Slavery, advocates a sweeping reconciliation between former slaves and their former owners, believing that the most accessible path to securing rights for his people is paved with acquiescence and cooperation, rather than by forcible
Indeed, Washington's efforts at the advancement of his people were cast as a direct counterpoint to the militant action of Marcus Garvey's followers and other hardline desegregationists. To Washington, the black man was simply in the process of earning his equality through hard-won collective advancement. In this altogether different approach to the problems experienced by the black man in America, Washington's was a more conciliatory mode aimed at the political
As a rule, there was food for whites and blacks, but inside the house, and on the diningroom table, there was wanting that delicacy and refinement of touch and finish which can make a home the most convenient, comfortable, and attractive place in the world. Withal there was a waste of food and other materials which was sad. Washington 18) Washington was also frequently asked by people he came into contact