Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starshe is now a part of the African American Historical quilt.
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2023
I bought this book simply because I have heard of Booker T. Washington for great many years of my life, so as I was wondering what to read his name popped into my head. As I started to read this book I realised it was Black History month so it felt fitting to read about this great man.
What struck me about this biography was the incredible drive for betterment after being sett free from slavery, you might say; and this surprises you? No, not at all, but imagine being a slave and being sett free, unable read, few if any skills to move you out from the shadows of human suffering. No leg up, no real help nothing, no home, no perceived security, nothing. What were people to do? Everything you knew is gone, you are free! Then it hits you, now what?
We now know, that many headed North but not Booker, his mother, brother and sister headed to West Virginia where his stepfather worked. As the story progresses we learn of the hardships of post slavery life and the drive of the newly freed to survive, understandably. But Booker, he had other ideas, first learn how to read, easier said then done for a black person in those days, then get an education, you see he’d heard about a school for black people and his journey there as a lad of perhaps or between the age of 11 to 12, his filled with grit and courage that would make most grown up’s think twice, he managed it and did it well.
This is a personal journey of a man with one driving force, do what it takes to educate black people, to become teachers, ministers, brick makers, farmers, builders you name it, in one sense you could say his school in Tuskegee became the first trade school of its kind in that time. He saw a need for skilled people, he understood that first you have to have the skills to survive in order to thrive. He brought the middle class to people who had been or their parents had been of the slave class. We as readers experience, his drive, his need to help his people, not for selfish gain but for them to succeed, enabling their children to succeed even further, reaching the highest of education and standards of living. Booker was laying a foundation for people to build on. Nothing is achieved without good foundation.
Booker T. Washington, his dream, and through hard work and discipline he made the dream come true, how he did it was brilliant, each step, each stone in the foundation of what became the Tuskegee Institute was built by the very people he educated, during their education as part of their education. Astonishing. He also had help from the outside, but it was harrowing at times to count on donations and the philanthropy of others. We see this persistence and hard work through most of the book.
After reading this book in one sitting mind you. Did I get a real sense of the man? Yes, we see what shapes his future in his childhood, we see where his drive comes from. But do we ever truly get to know Booker? No, not to the extent we would expect from an autobiography, his live revolved around the Tuskegee Institute, in fact, he says at one point in his book that he wished he had more time with his family, to enjoy time with them more like any other family, ( I am paraphrasing here).
However, what I do get a sense of, is a very humble, extremely intelligent clever man. With deep sense of responsibility towards his community. He walked a very fine line between the world of the whites where power and money lay and the world of the black community, newly freed, with all its challenges, heartaches, emotional trauma and continued poverty. I think we have to read this book through those lenses. Cultural relativism has no place in the interpretation of either the biography or the man.
I read Fredrick Douglas’s biography, essays and treaties and through his biography we get a very personal experience of life in slavery then freedom. Even the bigotry and strive between the races. Booker for some reason chooses to gloss over that part of his reality or was it ever a real threat to him, he mentioned having read Douglas’s biography, in fact he read it when he sailed home from Europe, he makes the point of saying that his experience on a transatlantic passenger ship was very different from Fredric Douglas’s.
So what are we to make of Booker? Well, I suspect he may have been on the autistic spectrum, his drive, his focus, it’s almost as if nothing else matters, he does not see whites as bitter enemies, he sees them as allies to succeed with his dream, he feels no hate (admirable, it’s not a way to success) he seeks no revenge, it’s almost as if his focus is so intense that he seems to brush of racism, not to dwell on it. I truly don’t know what to make of it.
In the end Booker T. Washington, is a mystery, well somewhat. He was not appeaser as some reviewers have said, he was no Uncle Tom ( if people had read Uncle Tom their realise that’s not an insult ). No Booker was a man ahead of his time, far more clever than some people can understand. Booker is a person to be admired and respected, he is now a part of the African American Historical quilt.
Leave all modern preconceptions of a black slave behind, read with out cultural relativism blinding you to his achievements, let no one rob African Americans of this man’s life, his story is now History. Respect that.
