Congress. Universityrcer professor examines the life and legacy of booker t. Washington. He talks about washingtons early years at Tuskegee University and looks at the ideological platform which encouraged African Americans to establish their own economic base. Washington helped create many institutions for africanamericans, like the National Negro Business League, he also had opposition to his ideas, both during his lifetime and since. Professor fontenot compares the ideas and tactics of booker t. Washington and Martin Luther king, jr. This class is about an hour and 20 minutes. Remember we have been talking about booker t. Washington and some of you disagree that washington in fact is a seminal figure that i have insisted that he is. Because i made a statement in class that many of you disagreed with when i said washington was the most important and most influential africanamerican leader until the election of president barack obama. He is even more significant in some ways because b
In the 19th century in order to establish your credentials as a race leader you have to have been a slave. So at the beginning of up from slavey he establishes his street credibility so to speak, right . That he was a slave right . We know he wasnt a slave for very long because slavery ended when he was 12 years old. We also know that because slavery ended so early, in washingtons life, that he may not have experienced the full import and weight of slavery because it ended when he was 12 years old. We know before the import of we know the full import of slavery it usually did not rest upon slave children fully until they reached puberty. So washington was a slave and he tells us some things about slavery but he also tells us that he had no bad feelings, no real, he harbored no real malice toward those people who were his owners. In fact, he even says his owner was not particularly bad. That seems to be oxymoronic, doesnt it . Be problematic, thinking of someone owning you, a slave mast