Up From Slavery

Author: Booker T. Washington
Date Published: 1901

There appears to be new interest in the life and works of Booker T Washington. A new anthology by Rebecca Carroll entitled Uncle Tom or New Negro? : African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later includes the thoughts of a number of prominent African Americans regarding the importance of Booker T. Washington.

With such a provocative title, I couldn't help but dust off my old copy of Up From Slavery to see if there are any useful insights from the dawn of the twentieth century which would be applicable in the 21st century.

Traditionally, there was always a debate regarding his view of the best route for African-American progress. This debate has contrasted Booker T. Washington's advocacy for self-help and practical education against the aggressive advocacy of W.E.B. Dubois for social and political equality.

It is important to place Mr. Washington's work in perspective in terms of the times in which it was written. The American civil war was over. The conflict was (and is) the costliest war for the United States in terms of lives lost. The process of reconstruction was overwhelming and flawed on many levels. Mr. Washington does a good job at describing the fact that many African Americans rushed into political and academic puruits prematurely in the wake of Slavery.

The combination of poorly prepared and unethical individuals in these fields likely was responsible for a number of problems faced by former slaves. Mr. Washington's theory was that through practical education and trades, that African-Americans would be able to prove themselves as being worthy of citizenship in the United States.

While I do agree with Mr. Washington that there is much be said for individuals who have merit and equip themselves with skills necessary to function in modern day society, it is also apparent that Mr. Washington,autobiography, Up f's view was overly optimistic and ultimately limiting.

As a college student, I firmly aligned myself with the philosophies of W.E.B. Dubois ad detailed in The Souls of Black Folk (1903),

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University, disputed the main principle of Washington's political program, the idea that voting and civil rights were less important to black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.”

"African American literature" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [Accessed February 9, 2006].

Ultimately, all of the hard work and merit in the world has not been enough to eliminate race prejudice and discrimination of African-Americans. While the actions of Mr. Washington as outlined in his autobiography are clearly laudable; they are (in retrospect) inadequate in terms of achieving equality and justice for minorities in the United States.