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Uncle Tom or New Negro

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Can't seem to shake this notion of an "Uncle Tom." I came across this review of a collection of essays entitled Uncle Tom or New Negro: African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and 100 Years Later at the American Heritage website. I remember enjoying Up From Slavery very much the first time I read it years ago, as I thought it was incredible the way Washington was able to build a school at Tuskegee literally from the ground up with the students making their own bricks because of the high price charged by local contractors. Quite a metaphor in that one.

Comments

  1. avrdsAugust 5, 2009 at 5:22 PM

    Also interesting. Maybe a subscription to the new/old American Heritage is in order, too.

    His metaphor about the fingers and the hand actually remind me of Lincoln's words.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RickAugust 6, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    Washington's accomplishments were incredible, but he lost the PR war. Doubt he can ever be rehabilitated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsAugust 6, 2009 at 4:44 PM

    That he was able to get money for Tuskegee college was a major feat (not fete as I first spelled it -- although I'm sure it was that, too). And those HBCUs have endured and prospered -- I would assume that's a tribute to him.

    ReplyDelete
  4. James FergusonAugust 6, 2009 at 5:02 PM

    Here is a very thoughtful, and I might add guarded, critique of Booker T. Washington by W.E.B. DuBois,

    http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/40/

    It would seem that DuBois viewed Washington as an "Old Negro."

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