THE ATLANTA CHOICE: THE ELEMENT OF FREE CHOICE IN BOOKER T. WASHINGTON’S STRATEGY FOR RACIAL PROGRESS

Abstract

Booker T. Washington was one of the most accomplished and respected African American figures American history. Washington has been recognised for his immense contribution to black education and industry in the Postbellum South. He, and his Tuskegee Institute, provided opportunities for blacks to flourish and even thrive in an age rife with great strife and discrimination. Yet, despite his accomplishments, Washington’s life and work has been censured by both his contemporaries and scholars for conceding too much to racist attitudes and legislations, while attaining too little in return; he was too placatory and limited the progress blacks would enjoy. But such a critique does not recognise Washington’s entire strategy. This thesis seeks a reinterpretation of Washington’s strategy for racial progress. Instead of capitulating to racist white Southerners and relegating blacks to an inferior social standing, Washington’s strategy was centred on free choice; his intention was for whites to freely choose to enact and support racial progress, economically, socially, and politically. Washington’s objective for blacks was to distinguish themselves such that whites will choose to respect them. Moreover, Washington’s conciliatory rhetoric towards racist Southerners was intended to convince them to support racial progress and dissolve their prejudice towards blacks. Washington said what was most likely to sway racist whites. This thesis also proposes some possible reasons why Washington pursued such a strategy, based on his experiences in the South. Based on his upbringing and the realities of the South, Washington concluded that racial progress in the South will be palpable only when it is pursued through the free choice of whites.