Essay on "Booker T. Washington's View of Reconstruction"

Essay 5 pages (1859 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Booker T. Washington's view of Reconstruction and its Impact upon African-Americans in the South.

Booker T. Washington was an American educationalist, novelist, speaker, and political leader. He was the leading person in the Black community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. Symbolic of the previous generation of black front-runners born in slavery, Booker declared on behalf of the great mainstream of African-Americans who existed in the South but had lost their entitlement to vote. Even though, his enemies called his powerful group of followers, the "Tuskegee Machine," Washington preserved his authority because of the help of dedicated whites, extensive support inside the black industry, educational and religious communities nationwide. With that said, it is clear that Booker T. Washington was an strong person that had an extensive view of reconstruction and its impact upon African-Americans in the South in many ways.

View of Education

Washington's views on education were illustrative of the circumstance that he was not a scholar, but a man of accomplishment. Washington desired blacks in the south to appreciate and warrant the necessity for industrialized education equally from a vantage of American and African participation. Booker was in contradiction of the view of education as an device used just to provide one to dialogue and dictate the English language properly; Booker desired school to be a place where one could learn to make life more manageable, and if likely, appealing - Washington wanted an education that would relieve him of the times he had at home that were hard, immediately. Washington, early saw that those people thought to be educated were not that far removed from the circumstances in which he was living. Therefore, he disagreed with the post-emancipation beliefs of blacks who trusted that liberty from slavery produced freedom from hard work. Moreover, education of the head would bring even more sweeping liberation from work with the hands. Booker was adamant about not wanting his black people to be embarrassed of exercising their hands, but to show respect for producing something and a sense of satisfaction upon completion of that job.

Earlier in life, Booker went the Tuskegee Institute which would represent a crucial role in education. Tuskegee University is a private college, which is historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1881, Booker T. Washington, then a budding teacher, disembarked in the town of Tuskegee, Alabama, where he had been requested by native whites to design a school for blacks (The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow). Booker was totally enthralled with the town but rather discouraged with the school itself. With whites supporting him financially, and his rising capability to assure loans and credit, Washington aimed to making a new building that would allow him to finish out his objectives. Washington started to raise monies from people from the neighborhood as well as from those living in the North to get the building. Booker had ideas to have the students build the buildings, and by doing that they would learn the industrial skills crucial to construct buildings and other things that are necessary. He imagined a school that would educate student's entirety from, cooking, and sewing housekeeping for girls to farming, carpentry, printing, and brick making for boys (The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow). Washington preached what he called "the gospel of the toothbrush." Washington eventually became recognized as the "Wizard of Tuskegee," an authoritarian who could tolerate no hostility in the African-American world, and who utilized his influence to shape a domain of industrial training schools at the expenditure of education.

View on economic and Political Rights

Booker T. Washington opposed WEB DuBois in a significant argument regarding how blacks should drive for rights in the late 1800s. Dubois significance was that he was the most noticeable intellectual leader and radical protester on behalf of Blacks in the first half of the twentieth century. A modern of Booker T. Washington, he passed on a discussion with the educator regarding discrimination, civil disfranchisement, and methods to make the lives of African-Americans better. They called him the "The Father of Pan-Africanism."

Washington was, overall, was much more adjustable and patient than DuBois. Washington is well-known for a lecture at the "Atlanta Exhibition" in which he advised blacks to be humble and patient. Washington believed Blacks should always work hard and stay humble. His political move was that if they acted civilized, whites would observe that and then treats them with respect. That is how they should fight for their rights. This is why Washington is seen as accomodationist he desired to act in habits that would please white views. Booker was not seriously interested in wanting to truly push aggressively and demand civil rights.

As far as the economy, Washington as mentioned previously, was seen as accommodating the present circumstances of African-American reduction because the communication of his writings and speeches was that the way to the accomplishment for blacks was through completing economic stability through education (mostly, vocational training); Booker did not protest, nor did he challenge the economic system much. Washington decided to focus on what blacks could achieve by concentrating on learning industrial skills; he believed this would help his race secure economic self-reliance. Washington sensed the aggressive speechmaking of Douglass and Du Bois preoccupied his people from the trail to wealth through economic success. Dubois was not the only person that was not a fan of Washington. The NAACP did not see him as a fruitful person as well. Basically, a lot of people in the early flourishing NAACP movement were not particularly happy with Booker T. Washington's method to handling with race relationships, a tactic they saw as a tad too eager to succumb to concessions. Washington was estimated to be somewhat a bit too appeasing toward the white powers that be by a growing masses of more radicalized African-American campaigners. In actuality, led by the greatest vocal adversary of Washington, William Monroe Trotter, Booker T. Washington came to known as the Benedict Arnold of the civil rights movement (Sexton). It is also true that Booker was maybe the most traditional of the civil rights leadership and it is also entirely true he was doing little to put forward a challenge to the position quo of white supremacy.

View of leadership in African-American community

Booker had noble intentions for the African-American community, but all of them felt the same about him. His views on accommodation made him many enemies in the black community. In the African-American community charges of cooperation were frequently thrown at him. Booker believed that the now freed black person's best chance at accomplishment depended on his or her capability to assimilate into white American culture. Booker thought that integration in the African-American could only happen after education. Washington thought that teaching the values of individual accountability, the pride of work, and the essential for sustaining ethical and spiritual personality were the best means for previous slaves to assume their rightful status in America. And the best way to do this, he contended, was to encourage business, industry, and entrepreneurial ism, and not by means of political anxiety. He therefore worked nonstop to aid blacks to become more wealthy through helping them build an economic foundation, most notably through his founding of the National Negro Business League.

Views on Reconstruction

During the reconstruction period, the Republicans, which were part of Lincoln at the time, controlled the attempt to rebuild the South. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution said that slavery was illegal, the Fifteenth Amendment transferred that no one was to be deprived of the right to elect on the basis of "race, color, or preceding state of servitude," and the Civil Rights Act recognized the full citizenship of African-Americans and their equal civil rights during the time of reconstruction ("The Case of the Negro"). With that said, Booker saw this era of reconstruction and the fifteenth amendment as a motivator for blacks during the reconstruction period. Inside the African-American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there was strong deliberation about the purposes and plans for blacks to follow. Booker T. Washington arose as the most well-known black leader. Booker became during the reconstruction era, he made what was known as the "Atlanta Compromise.

The Atlanta Compromise was the label of a prominent speech done by Booker T. Washington in 1895 in Atlanta when he guaranteed Whites that nothing would be done as far as him challenging White supremacy. This speech, was the first speech done by an African-American man in front of an audience that was racially mixed in the South. White supremacy is an organization where Whites get the best of things and have all of the authority to run things and believe they merit it because they are someway sounder because they are White. During that period, Whites were terrified that after slavery and reconstruction, Blacks would battle for their fairness and then Whites might have to share what they have. Washington advised Blacks not to challenge… READ MORE

How to Reference "Booker T. Washington's View of Reconstruction" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Booker T. Washington's View of Reconstruction and Its Impact Upon African Americans in the South Term Paper

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were the two most influential leaders of the African-American community during the period after Reconstruction and before the Civil Rights Era. However, they held… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1224 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery Term Paper

Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery and the Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The Lasting Impact of Slavery: Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington

The institution of slavery… read more

Term Paper 10 pages (3168 words) Sources: 3 Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

African-American History 1865 to the Present Essay

reconstruction were disappointing in that they did not complete the liberation of Blacks in the wake of the Civil War. While the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and the 14th Amendment… read more

Essay 2 pages (916 words) Sources: 3 Topic: African-American / Black Studies

---

Civil War Term Paper

Civil War

Most of us, no matter where we spent our early years in the United States, were taught a version of American history in which the Civil War (and,… read more

Term Paper 15 pages (4049 words) Sources: 16 Topic: World History

---

Federal Government (Both the Executive and Legislative Research Proposal

federal government (both the executive and legislative branches) did and did not do for the freed slaves, and why;

Following the Civil War, the United States still found itself grappling… read more

Research Proposal 5 pages (1768 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA Topic: American History / United States

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>