Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington wrote an autobiography and told his story from his own point of view, and many other writers have also offered portraits of the man and his rise to prominence. A reading of several of these versions of Washington's life and personality indicates how different writers treat their material and how they may have different takes on the same events.

Washington is depicted by Schneider as an accommodationist, while Harlan argues that there were other forces at work to make him appear so. Both describe him as the most powerful black leader of his time. Schneider says that Washington exercised more power over the ideas of black Americans in his time than any other leader in history, except perhaps for Frederick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr. (Schneider 57). Harlan notes, however, that Washington's legitimacy has been questioned by blacks in subsequent generations precisely because of his tendencies to accommodate whites (Harlan 2). Schneider refers to Washington as a man who denied an interest in politics and who avoided ideology while acting on both the political and intellectual worlds with great force. Schneider also sees Washington as basically pragmatic and as being so in the spirit of his age. He therefore sought a bargain between the races (Schneider 57), an appealing message at the time, but one easily criticized by later generations more attuned to political confrontation.

Schneider also sees Washington as seeking to control the upper cla

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ture that emerges of Washington is of a man who saw certain actions as criminal where others saw them as racist. Another journal of the time was Alexander's Magazine, which was operated by Washington from the beginning. The life of this magazine corresponded with the period during which President Theodore Roosevelt was retreating on race issues. Schneider examines both publications in terms of how they treated the issues of the day, how they treated Washington, and what the results may have been for his stature. Schneider also relies on letters written by people of the time and similar information for the picture he paints of Washington and the city of Boston. Works Cited Harlan, Louis R. Black Leaders of the 20th Century. University of Illinois, 1994. Schneider, Mark R. Boston Confronts Jim Crow 1890-1920. Boston: Northern University Press, 1997. Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. The black family in the slave era was an important social unit that was also fragile and that could be broken apart by a slaveowner desirous of selling one component or another. The black family in the period immediately after the abolition of slavery has been carefully examined by a nu

Category: History - B