If you have never read Booker T. Washington’s book, “Up From Slavery” I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It is inspirational, yet pragmatic. It is a travesty that many (though not all, as this article shows) elements of the black community over the years have bought into the W.E.B. Dubois approach to citizenship, instead of following the suggestions and example of Booker T. Washington.
Now, W.E.B. Dubois is lionized, and Booker T. Washington is forgotten and vilified. And that is a crime, IMO.
Alas, I’m in the higher education gig and am aware of my woeful ignorance within my own field.
I have heard of “Up From Slavery”, but alas, not even at the level where I can come and go and talk of Michelangelo
I wasn’t aware that Brooker T had been forgotten—then again I had no idea who Dwayne Johnson was until it was explained to me this past weekend, and with any luck I will have forgotten who he is three weeks ago (though he is now in my class notes as a possible fall back in an analogy on the importance of St. Augustine to his contemporaries in the event that my students do not know who Michael Jordan was).