The Return of Booker T. Washington

In our May issue, George McKenna reviews two new books that examine the complicated legacy of Booker T. Washington :

What was Washington’s approach? Aimed mainly at blacks in the rural South (where the vast majority lived at the time), it was to teach them the skills to succeed economically, whether in farming, factory, or business—”and, no less important, to imbue them with an ethic of responsibility, integrity, and public service. “Character building,” he called it, and it was as much a part of the curriculum at the Tuskegee Institute as carpentry and brickmaking. The education of “head, hand, and heart,” as he put it, would yield a double benefit for African Americans, empowering them economically and helping to dispel the prevalent stereotype of blacks as shiftless and irresponsible. To achieve these goals he was willing to ignore other injustices, such as segregated public accommodations. “The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house,” he said in a famous speech delivered at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. Du Bois later called it the “Atlanta Compromise . . . a willingness to suppress public criticism of segregation and disfranchisement in exchange for white support of vocational training.