Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe Du Bois Review is pleased to publish, for the first time, this significant reflection on "the meaning of Booker T. Washington to America," and in so doing highlight Du Bois's desire to see courage, rather than sacrifice, prevail in the face of injustice. This previously unpublished essay is among the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers housed in the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was brought to our attention by Robert Brown, who provides an introductory essay including an analysis of the likely date the essay was penned. We present it to our readers with the permission of The David Graham Du Bois Trust.

Overview: Booker T. Washington has been regarded as the leading figure in African American life, and as the man who brought his people from slavery to unfettered economic, political, and social involvement in the American mainstream. He has also been strongly criticized for advancing the cause of racial accommodation when the political agenda dictated the development of an independent black standpoint in all areas of the industrial structure. This agenda went far beyond educational reform and agrarian participation. Character Building first appeared in 1902. While enormous changes have occurred in all phases of African American rights and responsibilities, Booker T. Washington's broad outlines on building moral character have remained intact. Washington's book can be viewed as a Dale Carnegie volume on How to Win Friends and Influence People-black and white-as noted by the very title of the chapters: "Helping Others," "Influencing by Example," "Education that Educates," "The Gospel of Service," etc. For those in search of the ideological roots of black life in post-slavery times, this text will be a reminder of where the American nation has come from and, arguably, where it is going

This article suggests the need for a new "green" and "Earth-based" reassessment of the work of Booker Taliafaro Washington. Although it includes global and national perspectives, the African American community of South Central Los Angeles will provide the primary perspective. A general societal overreliance on petroleum-based chemicals has worked to the long-term environmental detriment of the African American community there. This article draws upon the works of four key environmental activists: Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, Robert Bullard, Van Jones, and Majora Carter. Working across a range of academic disciplines, the authors integrate contemporary "diagnostic" concepts of community health and environmental justice with older "prescriptive" concepts of employment in the primary trades and community self-reliance. The authors suggest that these old "Bookerite" concepts merit reconsideration, reframing, and re-messaging. The life's work of Washington has therefore been recast here, in light of its newfound green relevance for the African American community, today.