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A Critical Analysis of The Souls of Black Folk: Divergent Perspectives on Black Leadership
“How does it feel to be a problem in America (Du Bois 1)?” “What is the purpose of Reconstruction for the Negro race?” “How can African-Americans confront the problem of the color-line in 1904 (Du Bois 9)?” In The Souls of Black Folk (1904), W.E.B. Du Bois, a renowned sociologist, recounts the struggles and dogged resiliency of four-million newly emancipated African-American slaves during the Reconstruction Era. Throughout his seminal text, W.E.B. Du Bois advances an aspirational vision of self-determined political agency, economic organization, and full civil-equality for African-Americans. In contrast with Du Bois’ political perspective, Booker T. Washington articulates a vision of black leadership centered on African-Americans’ industrial education and economic advancement in the labor force. Nevertheless, historians must situate both contentious perspectives within the broader socio-political context of the early 20th
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century. How does Booker T. Washington’s opinions about industrial capitalism inform his views on higher education? Why does Du Bois reject Washington’s philosophy on political power? How can the Negro reconcile his economic interests with his political aspirations? Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, argued that the Negro’s economic progress is inextricably linked to his industrial education. “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem” (Washington 207). For Washington, African-Americans’ insistence on social and civil equality proved counter-productive for their goal of economic advancement. Instead, African-Americans ought to shift their focus inward and address issues concerning labor rights, land-ownership, and technical education. “Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life” (Washington 207). In contrast, W.E.B. Du Bois argued that the Freedmen’s Bureau functioned as a government vehicle of social advancement. “The greatest success of the Freedmen's Bureau lay in the planting of the free school among Negroes, and the idea of free elementary education among all classes in the South” (Du Bois 20). In Du Bois’ view, education—especially institutions of higher-education like Fisk—equipped African-Americans with the skills necessary to assert their political rights, expand their consciousness, and become financially literate. In the Atlanta Compromise (1895) speech, Booker T. Washington addressed prominent white southerners and moderate African-Americans in at the Cotton States and International Exposition. Throughout his poignant speech, Washington employed the rhetoric of industrial capitalism to frame the economic interests of African-Americans. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois discussed Booker T. Washington’s rhetorical intent, his provincial (biased) worldview, and his explicit messaging of racial solidarity, which shaped the ethos of Washington’s conciliatory speech. “Mr. Washington knew the heart of the South from birth and training, so by singular insight he ‘intuitively grasped the spirit of the age which was dominating the North. He learned the speech and thought of triumphant commercialism, and the ideals of material prosperity’” (Du Bois 26) Simply put, industrial capitalism embodied the laissez-faire economic policy of the Gilded Age. In Washington’s view, technical education and manual labor laid the foundation for African-American material prosperity. “One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success” (Washington 206). In other words, the growth of the New South is inextricably bound to the production of the African-Americans labor force—an estimated 30 percent of Southern laborers. Consequently, Booker T. Washington voiced that future financial prosperity in the South relied upon racial interdependence between white and black Americans during the post-Reconstruction period. In response to Booker T. Washington’s speech, W.E.B. Du Bois criticized and discredited Washington’s arguments using the triple paradox framework. “First, he [Washington] is striving notably to make Negro artisans business men and property-owners, but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property-owners to defend their rights (Du Bois 31). From the 1865 until 1940, sharecropping constituted the dominant form of agricultural labor in the South. This labor system undermined African-American’s goal of independent land-ownership. Alas, sharecropping became connected to a credit system that drastically reduced workers’ economic freedom and autonomy—ex. the peonage system and convict leasing system for indebted workers. The Life Story of a Negro Peon (1904) illuminated the struggle for African-American economic independence in Georgia. “We learned that we could not lawfully break our contract for any reason and go and hire ourselves to somebody else without the consent of our employer; more than that, if we got mad and ran away, we could be run down by bloodhounds, arrested without process of law, and be returned to our employer” (Holt 340). In turn, the idealized laborer that Washington envisioned lacked the financial literacy skills, education, and agricultural tools to thrive in the competitive Southern economy. More specifically, the first paradox shed light upon the need of industrial laborers to access to the ballot box; they needed to defend their broader political and economic interests. According to Du Bois, “Washington insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same time counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority such as is bound to sap the manhood of any race in the long run.” (Du Bois 31). Simply put, Du Bois advances an argument grounded in the political reality of the day. Andrew Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction policies, the enactment of the Black Codes, and the resurgence of second white counter-revolution hindered African-American’s opportunity for political advancement and quelled their growing legislative power in the South. In his third argument, Du Bois questions Washington’s ideal archetype of the black industrial laborer. “[Booker T. Washington] for advocates common-school, industrial training, and depreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither the Negro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges, or trained by their graduates” (Du Bois 31). W.E.B. Du Bois, a vocal proponent for African-American civil-rights, forcefully argued that political progress built the foundation for economic progress. “Can we establish a mass of black laborers, artisans, and landowners in the South who, by law and public opinion, have absolutely no voice in shaping the law under which they live and work?” (Du Bois 106). Throughout the late 19th century, Congressional Reconstruction granted former slaves the right to participate in the political process and hold public office in the state legislature. In light of these considerations, Du Bois ardently advocated for black political agency. Even though Du Bois harbored an elitist view of political leadership, he believed in cultivating the talented tenth of African-Americans to lead the black community as newfound political actors. “Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys” (Du Bois 33). Du Bois’ vision countered pushback, as Southern whites sought to subvert the legislative efforts of African-Americans. The second Southern white counter-revolution used intimidation, extra-legal violence, and racial terrorism to dissuade and bar African-Americans from asserting their rights. In Du Bois’ view, the Black Codes illuminated the shortcoming of the 13th Amendment; these unjust laws granted Southern states the leeway to infringe upon the political and legal power of African-Americans, which marked the judicial retreat from civil rights. Simply put, racial animus, vagrancy laws, and violence captured the fragility of American democracy. Alas, the Mississippi Plan of 1890 codified into law a social hierarchy that made whiteness a badge of privilege and power. Booker T.
Washington asked that African-Americans give up their “political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education of Negro youth” (Du Bois 31). In the Atlanta Exposition speech, Washington implicitly references to a defined social and racial hierarchy in the South. “It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities” (Washington 206). In order for the Negro race to advance, African-Americans must limit their political demands; instead, they ought to strive for progress in the industrial sphere. Ratified 1868, the 14th Amendment granted African-Americans the full privileges of citizenship in the United States. Meanwhile, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, granted African-American men the right to vote. As a result, Booker T. Washington believe that the politics of gradualism in the legislative arena made sufficient gains for African-American civil
rights. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois’ divergent visions of leadership culminate in a fruitful discussion about the scope and impact of civil rights protections for African-Americans. On one hand, Booker T. Washington argued that “…in all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington 207). Washington constructed an argument on the faulty premise that racial equality is unattainable. “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” (Washington 208). On the other hand, W.E.B. Du Bois contended that “it was time that the question of Negro suffrage in the South be raised” (Du Bois 105). Du Bois regarded full civil equality as a non-negotiable protection for African-Americans. In 1904, the separate, but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson justified the enactment of the Jim Crow law. De facto segregation barred African-Americans
As an unabridged version of his other book, Eric Foner sets out to accomplish four main goals in A Short History of Reconstruction. These points enable the author to provide a smaller, but not neglectful, account of the United States during Reconstruction. By exploring the essence of the black experience, examining the ways in which Southern society evolved, the development of racial attitudes and race relations, and the complexities of race and class in the postwar South, as well as the emergence during the Civil War and Reconstruction of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and a new set of purposes, Foner creates a narrative that encompasses some of the major issues during Reconstruction. Additionally, the author provides
While growing up in the midst of a restrictive world, education becomes the rubicon between a guileless soul and adulthood. In the excerpt from W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois provides a roadmap for African Americans to discover and understand themselves through the pursuit of knowledge, self-awareness, and authenticity. The excerpt is a significant part of the essay because it also speaks for the modern day pursuit of knowledge, self-awareness, and authenticity, an indispensable path into finding one’s self.
The role of the Freedmen Bureau in African-American development during the Reconstruction era has been a polarizing topic since the Bureau’s inception. While most concur that the Bureau was well intended, some scholars, believe that the Freedmen’s Bureau was detrimental to African-American development. One such scholar was W.E.B. Dubois, who in his book The Souls of Black Folk, expressed his discontent with the actions of the Bureau and suggested that the Bureau did more harm than good. Upon further probing, research refutes the position that the Freedmen’s Bureau was chiefly detrimental to Black development. While far from flawless in its pursuits to assist the newly freed Negroes, the actions of the Freedmen’s Bureau did not impede African-American progress; instead, these actions facilitated African-American development.
... same thing for blacks, first-class citizenship, but their methods for obtaining it differed. Because of the interest in immediate goals contained in Washington’s economic approach, whites did not realize that he anticipated the complete acceptance and integration of Negroes into American life. He believed blacks, starting with so little, would have to begin at the bottom and work up gradually to achieve positions of power and responsibility before they could demand equal citizenship—even if it meant temporarily assuming a position of inferiority. DuBois understood Washington’s program, but believed that it was not the solution to the “race problem.” Blacks should study the liberal arts, and have the same rights as white citizens. Blacks, DuBois believed, should not have to sacrifice their constitutional rights in order to achieve a status that was already guaranteed.
“It should come as no surprise that Washington’s historical conflict culminated as a struggle between him and DuBois” (Gibson III 66). To say the least, both men were very active in the upbringing of African-Americans, but their differences in displaying out the solution was what brought them apart. Washington wanted the education system to enforce industrial teachings that started at lower economic power, while DuBois had more abstract ideas of equality and voting for African-Americans. Washington was conservative in the matter of African-American inclusion into society, hoping that given enough time and progress, people would learn to accept them, rather than fight for social power like what DuBois stood for. Despite Washington’s program that appealed to White-Americans, he was involved in politics and spoke about the disfranchisement of African-Americans.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
Throughout his essay, Du Bois challenged Booker T. Washington’s policy of racial accommodation and gradualism. In this article Du Bois discusses many issues he believes he sees
The historiography of Reconstruction often failed to acknowledge contributions made by black leaders. During the latter part of the twentieth century historians began to re-evaluate Reconstruction in the southern states to include progress of African-Americans. In “Local Black Leaders during Reconstruction in Virginia,” Richard Lowe examines southern communities and black leaders after the Civil War. He concentrates the essay on re-examining historians’ negative impact of black reconstruction and argues black leaders faced a heavy burden to ensure political advancement in the aftermath of war. In comparison, Barry Crouch’s “Unmanacling” Texas Reconstruction; A Twenty Year Perspective,” also examines reconstruction historiography and support
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
African Americans have a history of struggles because of racism and prejudices. Ever since the end of the Civil War, they struggled to benefit from their full rights that the Constitution promised. The fourteenth Amendment, which defined national citizenship, was passed in 1866. Even though African Americans were promised citizenship, they were still treated as if they were unequal. The South had an extremely difficult time accepting African Americans as equals, and did anything they could to prevent the desegregation of all races. During the Reconstruction Era, there were plans to end segregation; however, past prejudices and personal beliefs elongated the process.
Booker T. Washington was a young black male born into the shackles of Southern slavery. With the Union victory in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Washington’s family and blacks in the United States found hope in a new opportunity, freedom. Washington saw this freedom as an opportunity to pursue a practical education. Through perseverance and good fortunes, Washington was able to attain that education at Hampton National Institute. At Hampton, his experiences and beliefs in industrial education contributed to his successful foundation at the Tuskegee Institute. The institute went on to become the beacon of light for African American education in the South. Booker T. Washington was an influential voice in the African American community following the Civil War. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington outlines his personal accounts of his life, achievements, and struggles. In the autobiography, Washington fails to address the struggle of blacks during Reconstruction to escape the southern stigma of African Americans only being useful for labor. However, Washington argues that blacks should attain an industrial education that enables them to find employment through meeting the economic needs of the South, obtaining moral character and intelligence, and embracing practical labor. His arguments are supported through his personal accounts as a student at Hampton Institute and as an administrator at the Tuskegee Institute. Washington’s autobiography is a great source of insight into the black education debate following Reconstruction.
During the end of the 19th Century, the condition of Black Americans was fatal and destructive during the fight for progression and equity. Although their physical chains were removed, Black Americans entered another form of racialized bondage that deteriorated their mental, physical, academic, social, political, and economic well-being. Despite living in constant torture, three prominent African-American leaders would take note of these issues and formulate tactics on what they believed would improve the black condition. In their acclaimed narratives, Ida B Wells, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Dubois would propose three distinct diagnostic accounts of racial subordination during the late 19th century. For Dubois, his account of racial subordination
It is in a diverse environment that I find myself growing the most. Diverse meaning an abundance in the difference in things such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs, or political beliefs.
It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....