"Two Thousand Miles for a Five Minute Speech"

In Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery, I read Chapter 13, "Two Thousand Miles for a Five Minute Speech."

In this chapter, we see some of the usual themes that appear throughout the book, in some way, shape, or form: that African-Americans should acknowledge the efforts of white Southerners on their behalf, rather than alienating them by badmouthing the South in the North; that white Southerners who discriminate against African-Americans are only hurting themselves, and they are standing in the way of society's inevitable progress (Booker T. certainly was an optimist!); and that African-Americans can build better relationships with the white community by working hard and becoming indispensable to it. For the latter point, Booker T. Washington tells the story of a Tuskegee graduate who dramatically increased the production of sweet potatoes, "by reason of his knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and by his knowledge of improved methods of agriculture." As a result, white farmers respected him and came to him for advice on how to raise sweet potatoes.

Although, thus far in the book, Booker T. Washington's approach has been for African-Americans to help their own local areas---rather than looking for opportunity in the North---in this chapter, he slightly backtracks on that point. He states: "I explained that my theory of education for the Negro would not, for example, confine him for all time to farm life—to the production of the best and the most sweet potatoes—but that, if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the foundations upon which his children and grandchildren could grow to higher and more important things in life." So, in a sense, he wants African-Americans at some point to reach for the stars; he may just think that a solid economic foundation needs to be laid before this can become realistic.

In a sense, this chapter is about Booker T. Washington's response to criticisms---not entirely, but in part. Throughout my posts on Washington's book, I have wondered where it fits into his differences with W.E.B. Du Bois: was the book written before Du Bois' criticism of Washington, or after it? (See my post on Du Bois' criticisms here.) Du Bois said that Booker T. Washington encouraged African-Americans to neglect their pursuit of political equality, and to focus instead on industrial education. What has puzzled me is that I do not see that sort of attitude in Booker T. Washington's book up to this point: ultimately, Washington champions African-American suffrage and participation in politics, although he acknowledges that the right to vote was misused in the past.

Well, Chapter 13 is where Booker T. Washington talks about his 1895 Atlanta Cotton speech, which he says "perhaps went further than anything else in giving me a reputation that in a sense might be called National." My understanding is that this was the speech in which Washington made his controversial remarks. A full transcript of the speech is in Chapter 14, but, in our present chapter, Booker T. Washington states that his message was as follows:

"I tried to emphasize the fact that while the Negro should not be deprived by unfair means of the franchise, political agitation alone would not save him, and that back of the ballot he must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character, and that no race without these elements could permanently succeed. I said that in granting the appropriation Congress could do something that would prove to be of real and lasting value to both races, and that it was the first great opportunity of the kind that had been presented since the close of the Civil War."

Was Booker T. Washington prioritizing industrial education over political activity, or was he saying that education can prepare African-Americans to participate better in the political process? Was his sub-text that African-Americans should stop fighting an unjust political system, and should instead focus on bettering themselves economically, which could impress white society and lay a foundation for their political inclusion? I'm not sure.