Booker T Washington Research Paper

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Since the early 1600’s when the first of the African Americans came to America they have been discriminated and treated as the lesser race. The time between 1887 through present day have seen some of the worst conditions for the African Americans. With such things as Jim Crow laws which were laws put in place for racial segregation, these laws saw the uprising of civil rights which lead to the expansion and worldwide recognition of racial segregation. African Americans responded to this by strikes and civil rights movements, but with people such as Booker T. Washington the presence of fighting back became weaker as Washington wanted to accept racial discrimination, we also see people like Malcom X who have a much more radical view on the civil …show more content…
Booker T. Washington was one African American who had a plan for “racial accommodation” which was his path toward progress. Washington used the example of a ship lost at sea, in need of water, signals a friendly ship. The friendly ship said “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Booker T. Washington, “Racial Accommodation” in [Reading the American Past] edited by Michael Johnson (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2012), 115. What he meant by this was that the African Americans should use what’s at their disposal to make things better and not try to acquire things that seem too far fetched. Washington was very much for African Americans getting out of the pit they have been in for so long. Washington came with a plan which called for “industrial education, conciliation of the south, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights” “Booker T. Washington and Others, 1903” in [Reading the American Past] edited by Michael Johnson (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2012), 117. These new views startled the nation to hear a African Americans support the submission of black rights. Washington believed African Americans needed to give up on political power, civil rights and higher education of Negro youth Mr. Washington came up with a program at a time when the nation was ashamed of their actions toward the negro race, his plan sought to give submission to the white race in that it was the only way Washington saw the negro surviving. In the early 1900s conditions for African Americans were gradually getting better. In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, he stated that “Now he was going to be free, to tear off his shackles, to rise up and fight.” Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Doubleday, Jabber, 1906. 238.

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