Booker T. Washington’s perspective on civil rights through industrial education is more realistic and effective than W.E.B. Dubois’ emphasis on classical education. Booker T. Washington grew up in the South as a slave, and therefore has a better perspective on civil rights than Dubois, who was born in the North. He understood that former slaves in the South would eventually be able to achieve equality, even in the South, if they made themselves into productive members of society. In order to avoid conflict and potential violence, Washington believed that starting at the bottom of the United States class system and earning a place in society was the best way to achieve civil rights.
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery. He grew up on a plantation in Virginia, with owners whom he described not as cruel, “compared to many others.” He lived there with his mother and two siblings until after the Civil War, when they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Soon after, Washington recalls the sorrow of former slaves in the South, suddenly overwhelmed with the responsibility of providing for their children, finding work, and making something of themselves – because they had no possessions or wealth but their freedom and dignity. (1) So what were these people to do? They were then in the same poverty as any white man who had nothing to his name. Washington understood the culture of the South. Having lived through slavery, he gained an intimate understanding of the focus on agriculture and manual labor in the South. This is the source of his focus on industrial education for African-Americans seeking civil rights and equal opportunity in the South.
Washington’s primary civil rights competitor, W.E.B. Dubois, advocated for the classical and formal education of former slaves. Dubois was born in Massachusetts and graduated high school as valedictorian. He then went on to pursue higher education in various colleges throughout the country and in Germany. He was the first African-American Harvard graduate, earning his doctorate there in 1895. Throughout Dubois’ life, he was focused on the value of formal education. (2) His intense studies in a part of the United States that was significantly more accepting of African-American activism for civil rights, displayed clearly through Dubois’ success in education, lead him to the formal education perspective of civil rights. He did not have the experience in Southern culture that Washington had, and therefore had a more extreme view of how civil rights should be achieved. The formal education that Dubois advocates would be less effective and less realistic than Washington’s view, because a movement towards formal education would be more radical and progressive from the Southern perspective, which would more likely incite violence towards this movement from racist Southerners. While the intention behind the idea of civil rights through formal education is positive, in effect, it would work against the progression of civil rights.
Considering the agrarian economy in the South, it would be in the best interest of African-Americans to work towards industrial education. The white population around them worked with their hands at manual jobs. African-Americans were already trained in various skills vital to daily home and plantation life, so Washington’s strategy was to further African-American manual skills in order to master a trade and work hard at it, earning respect from the white community often pursuing the same trades. (3) Through the meshing of economic culture, a black worker growing, learning, and producing profit alongside a white worker, the barriers between the races would be allowed to naturally and gradually break down. Whites in the South who were born to racist slave owners will see that African-Americans are no different in skill and productivity and capability than any white man in the same position, and this fosters the attitude from which stems equal opportunity.
There is no question that radical change is often accompanied by violence. Washington viewed widespread formal education for African-Americans as just that – too radical to be safe for most African-Americans. “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 of artificial forcing.” (4) The achievement of civil rights in the most peaceful way possible must come through the longsuffering and tedious task of working into society and earning a place. While it is unjust that African-Americans would have to prove that they were worthy of higher positions and of formal education, of equal opportunity, that in order to reduce social and political friction in the South, such methods would be necessary. Therefore, he thought African-Americans should start from the bottom, to be unashamed of working hard at physical labor, and earn their place in society with as little resistance possible. Instead of insisting through words and formal protests that they are equal, the realistic approach to civil rights is to show through tangible evidence that they are of equal humanity.
Washington encouraged white business owners in the South to hire African-American workers as a method of implementing his idea of industrial education. (5) This would provide a way for African-Americans to take advantage of the vertical mobility of the United States class system. In his 1899 address at the Abraham Lincoln memorial in Philadelphia, Washington discusses the process of making “a dependent man independent” (6) by becoming skilled in manual labor in the base of the class system, and working until African-Americans own shops and farms that compete fiercely with those owned by white Southerners. Washington believes this is the starting point for African-Americans, especially in the South. “It has been necessary for him [the Negro] to learn that all races that have got upon their feet have done so largely by laying an economic foundation, and, in general, by beginning in a proper cultivation and ownership of the soil.” (7) Washington made it clear that agriculture is the African-American’s outlet to equal opportunity, even in the deepest regions in the South.
The heart of Washington’s passion of industrial education was through the application of skills and knowledge attained through hard work and seeking out resources for African-Americans to better themselves. “…we have got to put brains into what we do, and if education means anything at all, it means putting brains into the common affairs of life, and making something of them…” (8). Washington was convinced of the effectiveness of his cause, because he had put his ideology to work. On July 4th, 1881, Booker T. Washington founded an industrial school in Tuskegee, Alabama, which allowed African-American students to work in exchange for tuition. The school in Tuskegee became widely known for producing quality workers and contributing an unprecedented amount of community service. (9) Washington was dedicated to the growth and excellence of his students, serving as principal from its establishment until his death in 1915. (10) Through the application of industrial skill, Washington believed that African-Americans could work towards an economic environment of equal opportunity, even in the South.
Booker T. Washington’s view of civil rights through industrial education is insightful, powerful, and realistic in considering the culture and structure of the South. His deeply held beliefs that hard work leads to success and opportunity are a core part of United States ideals, and is significantly more effective in the natural progression of the civil rights of African-Americans in the Southern United States.
End Notes:
Bibliography:
“Address Delivered at Hampton Institute.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/address-delivered-at-hampton-institute/.
“An Abraham Lincoln Memorial Address in Philadelphia.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/an-abraham-lincoln-memorial-address-in-philadelphia/.
“A Sunday Evening Talk.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/a-sunday-evening-talk/.
“History of Tuskegee University.” Tuskegee University. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/history_and_mission.aspx
“Industrial Education for the Negro.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/industrial-education-for-the-negro/.
“Letter to J.R. Barlow.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/letter-to-j-r-barlow/.
“Of the Training of Black Men.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/of-the-training-of-black-men/.
“Speech Before the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-before-the-atlanta-cotton-states-and-international-exposition/.
“The Educational and Industrial Emancipation of the Negro.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-educational-and-industrial-emancipation-of-the-negro/.
“The Educational Outlook in the South.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-educational-outlook-in-the-south/.
“The Fruits of Industrial Training.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-fruits-of-industrial-training/.
“The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-intellectuals-and-the-boston-mob/.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: Doubleday, 1901. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WASHINGTON/ch01.html.
“William Edward Burghardt Du Bois.” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois.
Header Photo: “Cussedy Hall Park, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.” Photograph. 1907. Accessed November 20, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.23843/.
For further writings of Booker T. Washington:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/bt-washington/
For more information and primary sources on W.E.B. Dubois:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/dubois/
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery. He grew up on a plantation in Virginia, with owners whom he described not as cruel, “compared to many others.” He lived there with his mother and two siblings until after the Civil War, when they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Soon after, Washington recalls the sorrow of former slaves in the South, suddenly overwhelmed with the responsibility of providing for their children, finding work, and making something of themselves – because they had no possessions or wealth but their freedom and dignity. (1) So what were these people to do? They were then in the same poverty as any white man who had nothing to his name. Washington understood the culture of the South. Having lived through slavery, he gained an intimate understanding of the focus on agriculture and manual labor in the South. This is the source of his focus on industrial education for African-Americans seeking civil rights and equal opportunity in the South.
Washington’s primary civil rights competitor, W.E.B. Dubois, advocated for the classical and formal education of former slaves. Dubois was born in Massachusetts and graduated high school as valedictorian. He then went on to pursue higher education in various colleges throughout the country and in Germany. He was the first African-American Harvard graduate, earning his doctorate there in 1895. Throughout Dubois’ life, he was focused on the value of formal education. (2) His intense studies in a part of the United States that was significantly more accepting of African-American activism for civil rights, displayed clearly through Dubois’ success in education, lead him to the formal education perspective of civil rights. He did not have the experience in Southern culture that Washington had, and therefore had a more extreme view of how civil rights should be achieved. The formal education that Dubois advocates would be less effective and less realistic than Washington’s view, because a movement towards formal education would be more radical and progressive from the Southern perspective, which would more likely incite violence towards this movement from racist Southerners. While the intention behind the idea of civil rights through formal education is positive, in effect, it would work against the progression of civil rights.
Considering the agrarian economy in the South, it would be in the best interest of African-Americans to work towards industrial education. The white population around them worked with their hands at manual jobs. African-Americans were already trained in various skills vital to daily home and plantation life, so Washington’s strategy was to further African-American manual skills in order to master a trade and work hard at it, earning respect from the white community often pursuing the same trades. (3) Through the meshing of economic culture, a black worker growing, learning, and producing profit alongside a white worker, the barriers between the races would be allowed to naturally and gradually break down. Whites in the South who were born to racist slave owners will see that African-Americans are no different in skill and productivity and capability than any white man in the same position, and this fosters the attitude from which stems equal opportunity.
There is no question that radical change is often accompanied by violence. Washington viewed widespread formal education for African-Americans as just that – too radical to be safe for most African-Americans. “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 of artificial forcing.” (4) The achievement of civil rights in the most peaceful way possible must come through the longsuffering and tedious task of working into society and earning a place. While it is unjust that African-Americans would have to prove that they were worthy of higher positions and of formal education, of equal opportunity, that in order to reduce social and political friction in the South, such methods would be necessary. Therefore, he thought African-Americans should start from the bottom, to be unashamed of working hard at physical labor, and earn their place in society with as little resistance possible. Instead of insisting through words and formal protests that they are equal, the realistic approach to civil rights is to show through tangible evidence that they are of equal humanity.
Washington encouraged white business owners in the South to hire African-American workers as a method of implementing his idea of industrial education. (5) This would provide a way for African-Americans to take advantage of the vertical mobility of the United States class system. In his 1899 address at the Abraham Lincoln memorial in Philadelphia, Washington discusses the process of making “a dependent man independent” (6) by becoming skilled in manual labor in the base of the class system, and working until African-Americans own shops and farms that compete fiercely with those owned by white Southerners. Washington believes this is the starting point for African-Americans, especially in the South. “It has been necessary for him [the Negro] to learn that all races that have got upon their feet have done so largely by laying an economic foundation, and, in general, by beginning in a proper cultivation and ownership of the soil.” (7) Washington made it clear that agriculture is the African-American’s outlet to equal opportunity, even in the deepest regions in the South.
The heart of Washington’s passion of industrial education was through the application of skills and knowledge attained through hard work and seeking out resources for African-Americans to better themselves. “…we have got to put brains into what we do, and if education means anything at all, it means putting brains into the common affairs of life, and making something of them…” (8). Washington was convinced of the effectiveness of his cause, because he had put his ideology to work. On July 4th, 1881, Booker T. Washington founded an industrial school in Tuskegee, Alabama, which allowed African-American students to work in exchange for tuition. The school in Tuskegee became widely known for producing quality workers and contributing an unprecedented amount of community service. (9) Washington was dedicated to the growth and excellence of his students, serving as principal from its establishment until his death in 1915. (10) Through the application of industrial skill, Washington believed that African-Americans could work towards an economic environment of equal opportunity, even in the South.
Booker T. Washington’s view of civil rights through industrial education is insightful, powerful, and realistic in considering the culture and structure of the South. His deeply held beliefs that hard work leads to success and opportunity are a core part of United States ideals, and is significantly more effective in the natural progression of the civil rights of African-Americans in the Southern United States.
End Notes:
- Washington, Booker T., Up From Slavery (New York: Doubleday, 1901), http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WASHINGTON/ch01.html.
- “William Edward Burghardt Du Bois,” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accessed November 19, 2015, http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois.
- “Industrial Education for the Negro,” Teaching American History, accessed November 19, 2015, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/industrial-education-for-the-negro/.
- “Speech Before the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition,” Teaching American History, accessed November 19, 2015, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-before-the-atlanta-cotton-states-and-international-exposition/.
- Ibid.
- “An Abraham Lincoln Memorial Address in Philadelphia,” Teaching American History, accessed November 19, 2015, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/an-abraham-lincoln-memorial-address-in-philadelphia/.
- “Industrial Education for the Negro.”
- “A Sunday Evening Talk,” Teaching American History, accessed November 19, 2015, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/a-sunday-evening-talk/.
- “History of Tuskegee University,” Tuskegee University, accessed November 19, 2015, http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/history_and_mission.aspx.
- Ibid.
Bibliography:
“Address Delivered at Hampton Institute.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/address-delivered-at-hampton-institute/.
“An Abraham Lincoln Memorial Address in Philadelphia.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/an-abraham-lincoln-memorial-address-in-philadelphia/.
“A Sunday Evening Talk.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/a-sunday-evening-talk/.
“History of Tuskegee University.” Tuskegee University. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/history_and_mission.aspx
“Industrial Education for the Negro.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/industrial-education-for-the-negro/.
“Letter to J.R. Barlow.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/letter-to-j-r-barlow/.
“Of the Training of Black Men.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/of-the-training-of-black-men/.
“Speech Before the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-before-the-atlanta-cotton-states-and-international-exposition/.
“The Educational and Industrial Emancipation of the Negro.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-educational-and-industrial-emancipation-of-the-negro/.
“The Educational Outlook in the South.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-educational-outlook-in-the-south/.
“The Fruits of Industrial Training.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-fruits-of-industrial-training/.
“The Intellectuals and the Boston Mob.” Teaching American History. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-intellectuals-and-the-boston-mob/.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: Doubleday, 1901. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WASHINGTON/ch01.html.
“William Edward Burghardt Du Bois.” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Accessed November 19, 2015. http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois.
Header Photo: “Cussedy Hall Park, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.” Photograph. 1907. Accessed November 20, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.23843/.
For further writings of Booker T. Washington:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/bt-washington/
For more information and primary sources on W.E.B. Dubois:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/dubois/