Up From Slavery

Booker T. Washington is a controversial figure in American history. In his own era, he was criticized by Black leaders such as W. E. B Du Bois, who saw him as capitulating to white supremacy. Washington, in contrast, saw his philosophy as the only practical way to help Black people achieve social power without causing major racial conflict.

This difference in views was largely due to the cultural discrepancies between the North and the South at the time. Du Bois grew up in a largely integrated town in Massachusetts. His family was several generations removed from enslavement, his great-great-grandfather having likely won his freedom in the American Revolution. Washington, meanwhile, was born into slavery and came of age in the Reconstruction-era South. He spent most of his life among the most disadvantaged Black communities in the country.

Du Bois and his Northern colleagues believed that the only way to achieve equality was through direct political action, getting as many Black people as possible into positions of influence. Organizations like the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), formed by Black Northerners and powerful former white abolitionists as a direct response to racial violence across the country, worked to bring about dramatic change such as voting rights for Black people and anti-segregation laws. The founders of these movements were largely critical of Washington. They saw his movement as one that would appeal to white people because it would keep Black people securely on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. They also did not trust white leaders to grant Black people any rights without immense political and social pressure.

In the time since Washington was alive, many scholars have softened their views about him. Du Bois expressed regret for having criticized him so harshly. Many civil rights historians now contend that Washington was taking was he saw as the safest approach in an extraordinarily difficult context. Washington’s views are reflected in the modern-day Black conservative movement. Like Washington, many Black conservative leaders foreground a message of self-improvement and personal responsibility over addressing structural inequalities.