Booker T. Washington and Black progress : Up from slavery 100 years later
"Booker T. Washington's rise from slavery to the presidency of the Tuskegee Institute and an adviser to American presidents and tycoons is an extraordinary saga of talent, ambition, and accommodation. Inspired by the centenary of the publication of Washington's autobiography, Up From Slavery, this collection of essays reinterprets Washington's career and self-presentation. As the most visible and widely acclaimed black leader of his era, Washington played a pivotal role in advocating a strategy for the racial uplift of African Americans in an age of intensifying racism and discrimination. Whether white or black, Washington's critics and supporters acknowledged his skill at extending his influence over all areas of American race relations. In recent decades, however, Washington's purported "accommodationist" program of racial uplift has been dismissed as uninspiring and even retrograde. Scholars seem to have concluded simultaneously that the riddle of Washington has been solved. This collection insists that in order to understand the era of Jim Crow, we must come to terms with Washington and his autobiography. It uses Washington, his autobiography, and his program to consider the meanings of Up From Slavery, the plight of African Americans, and possible responses by blacks in the United States and elsewhere to the "highest stage of white supremacy.""
Print Book, English, ©2003
University Press of Florida, Gainesville, ©2003