Racial Discrimination: Booker T. Washington And Frederick Douglass

Examining Prevalent Attitudes on Racism and the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

In America, the lives of Africans did not get any easier. Once the demand for labor began increasing dramatically, more and more Africans were imported to America. Originally, white people and black people worked together in the plantations. As a result of the increase in Africans in these British colonies, less white people took jobs on plantations. Eventually, enslavement became based on race. Numerous slave codes were developed, which included denying slaves the right to be out past sunset and denying slaves the right to meet in groups of three or more. These Africans forced to live enslaved in America were treated as if they were inferior to white people. It is discouraging to think about the fact that this country, though it was long ago, once accepted this kind of social injustice.

W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more

In his 1901 autobiography Up From Slavery author, educator, and orator Booker T. Washington chronicles his rise from Virginia slave to President of Tuskegee Institute. The work outlines Washington’s roadmap for racial uplift which is centered on agricultural and industrial education. Washington argued that hard work and virtuous living — traits instilled African Americans during slavery— would demonstrate the value African Americans possessed to the South and the nation. Operating within the political realities of the time, Washington was able to mobilize a coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, white philanthropists, and politicians from the North and South to build Tuskegee Institute and his vision for the African American community. However, Washington’s strategy asked for African Americans to put aside immediate demands for voting and the end of racial segregation. Washington’s willingness to publicly side step these civil rights issues to advocate for slow progress towards true equality earned him powerful critics such as NAACP president W.E.B. DuBois and journalist William Trotter. By the time of Washington’s death in 1915, Jim Crow laws entrenched segregation throughout the South. Washington’s plan for racial uplift was pragmatic and realistic. However, his advocacy for dignity in labor played into white stereotypes that black men and women were made solely for labor.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln explains that “all men are created equal,” thus they should have the freedom to pursue education, emancipation, and equal rights. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, who was a freed slave, despite the odds founded the Tuskegee Institute. The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas written by Fredrick Douglas is the story of his life as a slave, his courage and his escape. Their lives and stories inspired other African Americans to seek a better life. Booker and Fredrick were both authors, orators, freed slaves, and both men valued education. In addition, both men wanted personal freedom and the freedom of others. “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom,” stated George Washington Carver. Viewing education as the “key to unlock the golden door of freedom” they inspired others to seek education,

Washington was one of the greatest African American teachers of his time. Most of Booker T. Washington’s admiration was due to many of his personal achievements. Washington was the leader of the Tuskegee Institute and also began the National Business League. He believed that if blacks could live to maintain financial progress and religious development, they would only be able to do that if they endured the limits of the Jim Crow laws. He also believed that blacks should not have kept their mouths closed, as an alternative they should have

INTRO YO: Throughout history, all over the world, people have been enslaved and mistreated based on various arbitrary factors. From the slavery of cultures all over the world, to racial oppression of today, these people have been subjected to subhuman cruelty. In America, the turning point for this mistreatment was the late 19th century and early 20th century. With the civil war and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, slaves and free African Americans gained more freedom. The best path for these African Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries is to combine the ideas of great African American leaders like Frederick Douglass, WEB DuBois, and Booker T Washington. The optimal path to freedom for the subjected people is to become educated, to value themselves, working hard, and proving to oppressors that they are equal.

Booker T. Washington was a man beyond words. His perseverance and will to work were well known throughout the United States. He rose from slavery, delivering speech after speech expressing his views on how to uplift America's view of the Negro. He felt that knowledge was power, not just knowledge of "books", but knowledge of agricultural and industrial trades. He felt that the Negro would rise to be an equal in American society through hard work. Washington founded a school on these principles, and it became the world's leader in agricultural and industrial education for the Negro. As the world watched him put his heart and soul into his school, Tuskegee Institute, he gained

Booker T. Washington rose up from slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost educator and leader of black Americans at the turn of the century. He was born on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. As a child he worked in the salt mines but always found time for education. Washington constantly dreamed of college but as an African American this dream was nearly impossible. His scrupulous working habits from the mines set him out for college at the Hampton Institute. He graduated in 1876 and became a teacher at a rural school. After 2 years of teaching, he went back to the Hampton Institute and was a “professor” here for 2 more years. His next challenge would be at a new all black college, Tuskegee Institute where he would become president. Under Washington's leadership (1881-1915), Tuskegee Institute became an important force in black education. Washington won a Harvard honorary degree in 1891.

The era of Jim Crow began after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, in which through the rebuilding of the South, whites established laws and customs that forced freed slaves to stay marginalized and targeted by Southern whites. The purpose of these Jim Crow ideas was to keep blacks and white separated, and to also keep blacks from progressing in society. For instance, Southern whites forced blacks to take literacy tests before they could be considered able to vote. From the start of this Jim Crow era, racial compromise was already occurring. One of the most obvious examples of this compromise comes from the real name of the era. “Jim Crow” was a name used in a

Booker T. Washington was no dealt one of the most leading figure during America history. Even though he was born as slave, he worked his way up from hard work and into higher educations. As the president of the Tuskegee Institute and respectful educator, he had his own perspectives on the approach of the Negro race reformation.

In the letter "A protest against the burning and lynchig of negros" By Booker T. Washington (February 22, 1904) he claims that African American are being burn or lynch for no reason even do they do not committe a big crime. Booker T. Washington gives some examples of some of the people that have being burn even do they have not being charged with a crime, for this reason he gives facts that the laws were made by white people and they would not do anything to protect the civilization of negros.The author porpuse is to inform of what was going on to the negro race in order for people to start making and action because he fear that this was not going to stop unless other people would know about it.He wanted to establish a formal relationship

Racial discrimination, political, social and economic inequality during the late 19th century and early 20th century led various leaders within the black community to rise up and address the appalling circumstances that African Americans were forced to endure. Among these leaders were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois whom possessed analogous desires as it pertained to the advancement and upliftment of the black race. While both individuals were fighting for the same cause and purpose they embraced contrary ideologies and approaches to African American struggle. In Booker T. Washington’s book “Up from Slavery” African Americans were encouraged to be passive and focus on vocational education whereas in W.E.B. DuBois book “The Souls of Black Folk”, African Americans were encouraged to fight for their merited rights and focus on academic education. However, although Washington was convinced that his ideologies would sincerely uplift the black race, they actually proved to be detrimental, leaving DuBois ideology to be the most reasonable and appropriate solution for the advancement of the black race.

The autobiography of Booker T. Washing titled Up From Slavery is a rich narrative of the man's life from slavery to one of the founders of the Tuskegee Institute. The book takes us through one of the most dynamic periods in this country's history, especially African Americans. I am very interested in the period following the Civil War and especially in the transformation of African Americans from slaves to freemen. Up From Slavery provides a great deal of information on this time period and helped me to better understand the transition. Up From Slavery provided a narrative on Washington's life, as well as his views on education and integration of African Americans. All though this book was

African Americans were once a target of slavery in the United States. Slavery was abolished with the creation of the 13th Amendment, but after that, came segregation among white people and African Americans. African Americans had to suffer from Jim Crow laws that prevented them from being treated the same as white people. Jim Crow laws lasted for about 80 years until all were abolished.