Up From Slavery Booker T. Washington and Race Essay

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Washington Do?

Booker T. Washington faced the same, if not worse, treatment of his fellow African-American citizens when he penned his 1901 autobiography Up From Slavery. During his lifetime, Washington witnessed the utter failure of Reconstruction to bring about appreciable change or socioeconomic progress in the South. Although he recognized rank oppression and racism as being unfortunate parts of American history, the title of his book reflects the optimistic attitude of Washington. Washington hoped that through education and a willingness to work hard, African-Americans could achieve racial parity and upward social mobility. Because he also believed in obedience to the law and social harmony, Washington would be dismayed to see videos of police officers using unnecessary force on young people of all races. When faced with the truth of racism in the 21st century in America, Washington would be forced to contend with ongoing debates on how to address race relations so long after the end of slavery. Washington believed "few things, if any, are capable of making one so blind and narrow as race prejudice," (111). However, Washington also believed that African-Americans needed to avail themselves of a quality education in order to uplift themselves from poverty.

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Washington's approach can be called idealistic, and he would have advocated collective empowerment against abuses of power by police.

Because Booker T. Washington believed in "a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law," he would not condone riots and other acts of violence as a collective expression of anger (109). Like Dr. King after him, Booker T. Washington hoped for harmonious and peaceful resolutions to racial crises in America. Yet Washington seemed remarkably idealistic and even naive, and yet he was right that a lack of empowerment is the root cause of problems like police brutality and government corruption. Police brutality is a systemic problem. The abuse of power police brutality represents shows that Washington was right: the American public might be too ignorant or uneducated to vote. He states, " I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the protection of the ballot in many of the states," (Washington 115). By this, Washington meant that people in the South of all races should have to pass a test proving capacity to vote. The majority of Americans refrain from voting altogether,.....

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