Ghetto Book Notes: The Education of Booker T. Washington by Michael West

Was Booker T. Washington a Uncle Tom or a do-for-self Negro pragmatist? Michael West takes a fresh approach to an old question. He assesses Booker T. Washington's impact on later notions of progress and Civil Rights. He argues that the Washingtonian theory of "race relations" sent black struggle backwards by diverting attention away from inherent and pervasive social inequality. In other words, Washington built an ideology around negotiating for racial harmony rather than fighting for racial justice.

tags: booker t. washington, civil rights, do for self

See also:

     • Old Negro, New Negro

     • Don't blame Uncle Tom | The Guardian 

     • The American directory of certified Uncle Toms- Google Books 

     • Thoughts of a ghetto intellectual ™: Malcolm X's Critique of Martin Luther King Jr.

     • Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South by Andrew Zimmerman