Booker T. Washington on the Convergence of Education, Industry, and Human Flourishing

• In Event: American Political Thought

Abstract

Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery used to be the most widely read black autobiography past the midway point in the twentieth century, but Washington has since been displaced by Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois as the two most frequently discussed early black thinkers in the canon of black political thought, and of American political thought more broadly. This shift possibly derives from the modern tendency to disparage Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address and his focus on industrial education as pragmatic, accommodationist, and conservative. My paper argues that this interpretation does not do justice to his philosophy of social reform. Washington’s educational vision was rather part of a more expansive undertaking to promote blacks’ well-being through a.) the mastery of natural resources through the hand and the mind; b.) the nourishment of independence, moral habitudes, and excellence of character; c.) the encouragement of voluntary association among blacks to achieve shared aims in communities; and d.) instruction in the Christian religion. The sharpening of blacks’ craftsmanship skills, combined with forging habits of self-independence, were vital aspects of Washington’s conception of human flourishing that included but transcended the use of the hands. Although Washington’s approach was flawed, it reflected a nuanced understanding of race relations and education that calls for reviving his stature in the canon of both black political thought and American political thought.

Author

• Gregory Collins, Yale University