The Battle for Booker's True Legacy

Booker T. Washington published his autobiography, Up from Slavery, during the peak of his career in 1901.

Because Washington was engaged in a dangerous covert battle against white supremacy, he chose to be very circumspect in his description of the segregated south. His autobiography revealed little of the true nature of his struggle against the forces of oppression and left him open to the accusation of accommodation. In reality, however, Washington organized public protests against union discrimination, unfair voting qualifications, segregated housing legislation, and lack of education funding.

W.E.B. DuBois, who had previously praised Booker's Atlanta speech and his work for black education and economic advancement, categorized the autobiography as a sell-out. He rescinded his praise of Booker's Atlanta speech and re-labeled it the "Atlanta Compromise."

By 1903, DuBois had completely parted ways with Booker and in his own book, Souls of Black Folks, he asserted that Washington's program "practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races." Washington's complete writings reveal this accusation as utter nonsense, but the stage was set nonetheless for a whole-scale re-evaluation of Washington's legacy.

In the period immediately following Washington's death in 1915, many who read Up from Slavery continued to esteem the man and his work. However, in 1951 historian C. Vann Woodward sided with DuBois and condemned Washington in his book, Origins of the New South. Woodward's influence was widespread and his judgment of Washington's life stood unchallenged for decades.

Woodward's protege, Louis Harlan, spent 25 years studying the Washington papers and yet was never able to truly step out from under Woodward's influence. Harlan's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Washington accords significant weight to DuBois' critique as propagated by Woodward.

For nearly 50 years, Washington has been dismissed by both black and white academics as an Uncle Tom, and black leaders have sought inspiration elsewhere.

In recent years, however, a new crop of historians, such as Robert J. Norrell, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, have begun to re-evaluate Washington's legacy. Norrell challenges the view that Washington was an obedient accommodationist chosen by whites to maintain white supremacy. Norrell, Prof. John Butler at the University of Texas, and Prof. Mark Bauerlein at Emory University, all contend that Washington was in fact a true subversive. He taught blacks to believe in themselves and the power of their own industry and resourcefulness in a society reared on the myth of black inferiority.

The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change is excited to introduce a new generation of black men and women to the life and teachings of Booker T. Washington.

Lee Walker (lwalker@newcoalition.org) is president of The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change.