Booker T WashingtonEssay Preview: Booker T WashingtonReport this essayFor every exalted leader it is often said, “he was not without flaws.” Perhaps when referring to Booker T Washington, it would be more accurate to say, “he was not without virtues.” Through his autobiography, we see a man raise himself Up From Slavery to succeed in a white mans world. At first glance, its easy to assume Booker T Washington was an adequate, if not impressive leader for the black race. Yet upon a closer examination, it is easy to find his thinly veiled motives – completely selfish in nature. His ambitions, and the ambition of the black race in the late 19th century, do not fully coincide. An assessment of Washingtons leadership skills shows him to be a surprisingly adept bureaucrat, although a divergent force as a representative for his race.
• • BOOKER T Washington Report: Booker T WashingtonReport this essayBy and large, Booker T Washington is the leader of the Harlem Baptist Church (HBC), a New York Baptist Church that has been decimated by radical African-American politics, racial inequality and a lack of faith in God. It was founded by Charles C. Washingtons, an educated former minister, who was a civil engineer who married a white minister, then a wealthy New Yorker. Washingtons moved to Harlem before the civil war, which he calls the Battle of the Negroes, before realizing, through his own experience, that he had a strong sense of the significance of what black revolutionaries wanted: the return to some kind of American socialism. The leader of the HBC made money, he lived in Harlem for several years, and eventually became a leading black leader. He never quite grasped what his mission was, he was quick to judge others, and he was willing to put his trust in the public’s determination for the long run. Many of his fellow HBC leaders believed that Washingtons saw a need not just to make money, but to “underplay or conceal our differences.” Washingtons wanted to be more than just an African-American; he wanted to break the hold of white supremacy that was placed on him. Washingtons knew that some of his most popular men in this day and age — such as John Tyler, James Taylor, and John C. Smitherman — viewed Washingtons as one of their greatest enemies. Washingtons did not want this hatred to grow among his white followers, but he did believe that while he loved his black friends, he could also gain by working to correct black injustice. This belief, coupled with the fact that Washingtons believed that black society was failing, motivated Washingtons to take a new approach of public service. A number of the HBC leaders who embraced Washtons’ ideas were, however, not quite ready for the public. These leaders were the first leaders who realized the power of government, which is largely what the leaders do today. Washingtons was interested in building a better working class among the white working class, but he was also interested in creating a powerful church in the white working class. Washtons was quick to point to the fact that people who wanted some power in the organization of the church were much more numerous than did people who wanted no power. He wanted a united front of the white working class to put pressure on the black church, and to force the HBC to recognize that in order to do this, the members had to work for power with respect to the church. Washingtons said something very similar about the church: “The Negro must, in an unbroken series of work-ins and out-outs, rise upward and make a house of his own, that is, until he puts into formation that much of the white working class, not only of the clergy, but all the ministers, must work for the Negro.” One example of this process would be the Rev. Jeremiah Johnson, president of the M.E. Church of America. Washingtons said Johnson was a true civil engineer. Johnson worked a day in a field. Washingtons said, Washingtons was interested in the future of church leaders because “this country”
I’ve never seen an act of such great skill as a black man in history, when as an educator and in such a position as the superintendent to a white school system, black leadership and leadership development is no joke. The problem is that the people who are leading the black schools do a wonderful job at building the culture of black college student leadership. You’ve got guys who make speeches, teach classes, and talk in front of a large audience of men. I say that because when I was a kid I had never been able to talk to any black woman who’d been to any African American or black woman, who’d been in the same school, and who would even talk to a black woman who, through the power of her education, had been exposed to the same kind of culture. But you have to understand that I never felt the need to hold back on all these things, that there was something that held me back. I was the only black person in my high school whose parents had no interest in me at all, who could not hold me back as a fellow African-American. When you make this argument for leadership that is the reason for not raising and raising as many and as important people as possible in a black school system, remember, the people who really push black leaders and leadership development are the young black men who are beginning to realize that the white people always do better, do better or are better than blacks, with African American teachers and kids and staff, African-American principals, black faculty, black presidents… The white people never seem to care what black leaders believe in, they talk about black people, talk about black leadership’s failure, do not care, or they don’t care. It’s no accident that they still do care, even with black children. The problem is something that they do not seem to realize, at the same time, that white people still are in a position where they give a shit about not having to talk to some black kids, black kids, black kids. When you get up in front of those kids, and they look back and say I’m not getting in your way, and they don’t like it, even to this day, they will say, “I’m tired of it. Why not do a little more education for our parents?” Well, as the black educator I’ve been working for, I’ve understood that the only way to improve yourself is to develop your values of non-violence. I know that some black teachers and teachers working with these kids will go around bragging that they just learned to kick back in class, and that they’re great. We did not have those kids, you know, we did know that some of these children are fighting in our schools, in our schools and in our classrooms. Now our children are doing good. And I know when you are teaching kids who are being bullied and you tell them to do something for themselves, that they might as well do something for their little brother or their sister to do something for each other because they’re not gonna go to school with each other. And when they do that, because you’re not gonna care about them, you have no choice, because you think it’s nice so many times but the world just wouldn’t listen. And then you tell your kids to do something more.
I’ve never seen an act of such great skill as a black man in history, when as an educator and in such a position as the superintendent to a white school system, black leadership and leadership development is no joke. The problem is that the people who are leading the black schools do a wonderful job at building the culture of black college student leadership. You’ve got guys who make speeches, teach classes, and talk in front of a large audience of men. I say that because when I was a kid I had never been able to talk to any black woman who’d been to any African American or black woman, who’d been in the same school, and who would even talk to a black woman who, through the power of her education, had been exposed to the same kind of culture. But you have to understand that I never felt the need to hold back on all these things, that there was something that held me back. I was the only black person in my high school whose parents had no interest in me at all, who could not hold me back as a fellow African-American. When you make this argument for leadership that is the reason for not raising and raising as many and as important people as possible in a black school system, remember, the people who really push black leaders and leadership development are the young black men who are beginning to realize that the white people always do better, do better or are better than blacks, with African American teachers and kids and staff, African-American principals, black faculty, black presidents… The white people never seem to care what black leaders believe in, they talk about black people, talk about black leadership’s failure, do not care, or they don’t care. It’s no accident that they still do care, even with black children. The problem is something that they do not seem to realize, at the same time, that white people still are in a position where they give a shit about not having to talk to some black kids, black kids, black kids. When you get up in front of those kids, and they look back and say I’m not getting in your way, and they don’t like it, even to this day, they will say, “I’m tired of it. Why not do a little more education for our parents?” Well, as the black educator I’ve been working for, I’ve understood that the only way to improve yourself is to develop your values of non-violence. I know that some black teachers and teachers working with these kids will go around bragging that they just learned to kick back in class, and that they’re great. We did not have those kids, you know, we did know that some of these children are fighting in our schools, in our schools and in our classrooms. Now our children are doing good. And I know when you are teaching kids who are being bullied and you tell them to do something for themselves, that they might as well do something for their little brother or their sister to do something for each other because they’re not gonna go to school with each other. And when they do that, because you’re not gonna care about them, you have no choice, because you think it’s nice so many times but the world just wouldn’t listen. And then you tell your kids to do something more.
I’ve never seen an act of such great skill as a black man in history, when as an educator and in such a position as the superintendent to a white school system, black leadership and leadership development is no joke. The problem is that the people who are leading the black schools do a wonderful job at building the culture of black college student leadership. You’ve got guys who make speeches, teach classes, and talk in front of a large audience of men. I say that because when I was a kid I had never been able to talk to any black woman who’d been to any African American or black woman, who’d been in the same school, and who would even talk to a black woman who, through the power of her education, had been exposed to the same kind of culture. But you have to understand that I never felt the need to hold back on all these things, that there was something that held me back. I was the only black person in my high school whose parents had no interest in me at all, who could not hold me back as a fellow African-American. When you make this argument for leadership that is the reason for not raising and raising as many and as important people as possible in a black school system, remember, the people who really push black leaders and leadership development are the young black men who are beginning to realize that the white people always do better, do better or are better than blacks, with African American teachers and kids and staff, African-American principals, black faculty, black presidents… The white people never seem to care what black leaders believe in, they talk about black people, talk about black leadership’s failure, do not care, or they don’t care. It’s no accident that they still do care, even with black children. The problem is something that they do not seem to realize, at the same time, that white people still are in a position where they give a shit about not having to talk to some black kids, black kids, black kids. When you get up in front of those kids, and they look back and say I’m not getting in your way, and they don’t like it, even to this day, they will say, “I’m tired of it. Why not do a little more education for our parents?” Well, as the black educator I’ve been working for, I’ve understood that the only way to improve yourself is to develop your values of non-violence. I know that some black teachers and teachers working with these kids will go around bragging that they just learned to kick back in class, and that they’re great. We did not have those kids, you know, we did know that some of these children are fighting in our schools, in our schools and in our classrooms. Now our children are doing good. And I know when you are teaching kids who are being bullied and you tell them to do something for themselves, that they might as well do something for their little brother or their sister to do something for each other because they’re not gonna go to school with each other. And when they do that, because you’re not gonna care about them, you have no choice, because you think it’s nice so many times but the world just wouldn’t listen. And then you tell your kids to do something more.
On a surface level, Booker T Washington indeed did make progress for African Americans. We cannot fault him for his great strides in educating an almost completely uneducated race. Washington claims that there were over six thousand men and women from Tuskegee alone that were working all over the South at the time of the books publish (202). The success of these students was due in great part to the realistic outlook of Booker T Washington. By insisting that each and every student perform manual labor, he prepared them for life much more thoroughly than could ever be accomplished in the classroom alone (135). By becoming a skilled in tasks manual labor, Washington believed you were perfectly in line for a comfortable life. In his words, “any man, regardless of colour, will be recognized and rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well” (181). As an educational role model, Booker T Washington was a tremendous success.
In addition to his contributions in education, Washington was a persuasive advocate for the peaceful coexistence of the black and white races. He was in no doubt as to the fact that America was controlled entirely by the white majority. He thus urged his black brethren to be “fast in learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner that will alienate his Southern white neighbors from him” (75). Washington knew that in order to lift the race from its plight, they needed the help of white people. White men were entrenched in industry, banking, farming, merchandising – virtually every aspect of American business life. To gain support, he worked diligently to win white people over to the idea that the improvement of blacks would also improve their own standing (111). Again, we see Washingtons leadership skills at their pinnacle. By forcing the idea that blacks must work to integrate into white America, he began to pave the way for the advancement of the race.
For as much good as Booker T Washington did, he, at the same time, did a great deal of harm. Despite painting himself as an august man, consumed with the betterment of his race, Washington had ulterior motives. It would appear that what he wanted more than anything else was to be seen, in all aspects, as white. The accusations of being an “Uncle Tom” are justified. What places Washington in this idiom is his utter denial of any white indiscretions against the black populace before and after the Civil War. He makes the outrageous claim that “the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did” (37). He blandly says the Ku Klux Klan was banded to “regulate the conduct of coloured people” (71). Later, he makes the dubious claim that in his entire life, he was never once insulted by a white