Review of Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery"
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Published June 25, 2021
Updated May 10, 2022 |
A Review of "Up from Slavery: An Autobiography of Booker T. Washington"
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This book was published in 1901. I read the book because Julius Rosenwald said it was one of two books that most affected his life. While I was pondering how to start off this review of one of America's classics that I had not read before, I saw an article entitled, "Be the design you want to see in the world." I thought to myself that this summarizes the goal of this book and the life of Booker T. Washington better than anything I would ever come up with.
His goal was to make his life the design of a life well lived. Of course lived as a black person but also as a human being. If anyone limits his life and goals to a single race, they are limiting the potential of a great man to affect the course of our lives. The following quote from his book is amazing in its optimism, its unselfishness, its insight into others that would put up barriers and walls rather than invite a man or woman to be a better person. He chose the right word: pity. |
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I used to cherish a feeling of ill will toward anyone who spoke in bitter terms against the Negro, or who advocated measures that tended to oppress the black man or take from him opportunities for growth in the most complete manner. Now, whenever I hear any one advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of another, I pity the individual who would do this. I know that the one who makes this mistake does so because of his own lack of opportunity for the highest kind of growth.
I pity him because I know that he is trying to stop the progress of the world, and because I know that in time the development and the ceaseless advance of humanity will make him ashamed of his weak and narrow position. One might as well try to stop the progress of a mighty railroad train by throwing his body across the track, as to try to stop the growth of the world in the direction of giving mankind more intelligence, more culture, more skill, more liberty, and in the direction of extending more sympathy and more brotherly kindness. Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery, 1901
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Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing, [LC-DIG-hec-16114]
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In high school, we read and openly discussed the book, Black like Me. I wish this would have been a follow-on assignment. Mr. Washington today speaks to me not as a black man, but as a man who transcended race. He accomplished what he wrote, "The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race."
As an optimist, I believe the world wants to treat each individual as an individual, avoiding stereotypes. His book appealed to me regardless of race. It was just one human being writing to another in the hope of achieving a better world.
I can see why Julius Rosenwald was so affected by this book: me too.
Cheers,
- Pete
As an optimist, I believe the world wants to treat each individual as an individual, avoiding stereotypes. His book appealed to me regardless of race. It was just one human being writing to another in the hope of achieving a better world.
I can see why Julius Rosenwald was so affected by this book: me too.
Cheers,
- Pete