Legacy
The years 1880–1915 have been dubbed the Age of Booker Washington because of how well-known he was as a public figure. There has been a wide range of historical perspectives about Washington, his personality, and the significance of that leadership. Following his passing, the civil rights community harshly condemned him for his accommodationism toward white supremacist ideology. But from the late 20th century, a more impartial assessment of his extremely diverse work has emerged. According to the most recent research, “defend and celebrate his accomplishments, legacy, and leadership” (2010).
Both white and Black business-oriented conservatives regarded Booker Washington in high regard. According to historian Eric Foner, the late nineteenth-century freedom movement reoriented itself to fit America’s evolving intellectual and economic landscape. Black leaders stressed that economic self-help and personal middle-class advancement were more successful tactics than political protest. Education and literacy were prioritized during the post-Civil War era. This shift was signaled by Washington’s well-known 1895 Atlanta speech, which urged African Americans to advance their farms, industrial skills, and businesses as the next step in escaping slavery.
By this point, Mississippi had enacted a new constitution, and other Southern states were either doing the same or employing electoral rules to increase obstacles to voter registration; in order to uphold white supremacy, they finished disenfranchising Black people by the turn of the 20th century. However, Washington decided that the best way to combat such voting limitations and segregation was to covertly arrange for the funding of multiple legal challenges.
Booker Washington advised Black people that fighting segregation at that time was ineffective, rejecting the previous abolitionist emphasis on relentless advocacy for complete equality. Foner comes to the conclusion that the Black community’s strong support for Washington stemmed from the general understanding that frontal attacks on white supremacy were unfeasible given their legal and political circumstances and that the best course of action was to focus on strengthening their social and economic structures within segregated communities. In 1951, Booker Washington was described by historian C. Vann Woodward as “the businessman’s gospel of free enterprise, competition, and laissez-faire never had a more loyal exponent.”
Since the late 20th century, historians have disagreed on how to interpret Washington. Some characterize him as a visionary who could “read[ing] minds with the skill of a master psychologist,” who skillfully played the political game in nineteenth-century Washington by its own rules. Others claim that he was a cunning, self-serving narcissist who traveled with an entourage, threatened and punished people who stood in the way of his personal goals, and spent a lot of time fundraising, signing autographs, and making flowery, patriotic speeches while waving flags—actions more befitting an artistic political boss than a selfless civil rights leader.
Booker Washington was dubbed the “Wizard of Tuskegee” due to his highly developed political abilities and his establishment of a national political apparatus built on the support of the Republican Party, white philanthropy, and the Black middle class. This network was dubbed the “Tuskegee Machine” by its detractors. Washington was able to retain power because he was able to win over a wide range of organizations, including powerful white and Black corporate, educational, and religious institutions across the country. He gave advice on how to use charitable contributions from philanthropists and refrained from upsetting white Southerners by making accommodations to the political realities of the Jim Crow era.
Following Washington’s passing, the Tuskegee machine quickly fell apart. With Emmett Jay Scott’s help, he was the dynamic leader who kept everything together. However, Scott was ousted by the trustees, and the complex system collapsed. From the 1920s through the 1960s, Tuskegee was mocked by critics, particularly those associated with the NAACP, for creating a class of subservient Black workers. Historians have taken a far more positive stance since the late 20th century, highlighting the school’s distinguished faculty as well as the progressive Black movements, organizations, and leaders in education, politics, architecture, medicine, and other fields that it produced. These individuals worked hard in communities throughout the United States and, in fact, throughout the African Diaspora.
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The social studies curriculum provided an opportunity for the uplift of African Americans at a time when these opportunities were few and far between for Black youth. The curriculum provided inspiration for African Americans to advance their standing in society, to change the view of southern whites toward the value of blacks, and ultimately, to advance racial equality.
The Tuskegee Institute in Washington gave their needs top consideration during a period when the majority of Black Americans were impoverished farmers in the South who were disregarded by the national Black leadership. In order for the institution to offer advanced training, organizational skills, and model farming techniques, it advocated for government funding, particularly from philanthropies. The Tuskegee Experiment Station, the Agricultural Short Course, the Farmers’ Institutes, the Farmers’ County Fairs, the Movable School, the Annual Negro Conferences, and a plethora of free pamphlets and feature articles distributed to the Black newspapers of the South were among them.
Media Appearance
- The famous African-American composer Scott Joplin depicted Washington and his family’s visit to the White House in his opera A Guest of Honor. The initial production took place in 1903.
- Richard Durham’s “Up from Slavery” from the 1949 anthology radio drama Destination Freedom summarized his life.
- In the 1975 book Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, Washington is portrayed as attempting to negotiate the surrender of an African-American musician who is threatening to blow up the Pierpont Morgan Library. Moses Gunn portrayed the character in the 1981 movie version.
- In the 2020 Netflix miniseries Self Made, which was based on Madame C. J. Walker’s life, Roger Guenveur Smith played Washington.
- Michael Braugher plays Washington in the HBO series The Gilded Age.
- In the Canadian television historical detective series Murdoch Mysteries, Michael Blake plays Washington in episode 17 of season 15 “Bloodlines” (February 21, 2022).
Booker Washington Works
- The Future of the American Negro – 1899
- The Story of My Life and Work (1900)
- Washington, Booker T.; Wood, Norman B.; Williams, Fannie Barrier (1900). MacBrady, John E. (ed.). A New Negro for a New Century: An Accurate and Up-to-Date Record of the Upward Struggles of the Negro Race. Chicago, IL: American Publishing House.
- Up from Slavery – 1901
- Character Building – 1902
- Working with the Hands – 1904, a sequel to Up From Slavery
- Tuskegee & Its People (editor) – 1905
- Frederick Douglass – 1906 Online
- The Negro in the South (with W. E. B. Du Bois) – 1907
- The Negro in Business – 1907
- The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery (1909)
- My Larger Education (1911)
- The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe – 1912
