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Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery

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After 200 strenuous years of the enslavement of African Americans, the establishment of the 13th amendment banned all forms of slavery in the United States. Though African Americans received emancipation, they did not stop facing social inferiority. In the late 1800s, the Jim Crow laws, a series of laws oppressing African American freedoms in the South, prohibited African Americans from gaining social equality. The ongoing oppression of African Americans is the focal point in Booker T. Washington's “Up From Slavery”. In this autobiography, Washington stresses his views on how African Americans should counteract racism and discrimination. He emphasizes the fact that former slaves should be: rewarded as individuals, strive to educate themselves, and push for equality. These ideals seem may seem easily attainable, but they are still not received by African Americans. To this day, African Americans face racial discrimination in their neighborhoods, their jobs, and even their homes. History …show more content…

Washington believed that deserving individuals should be rewarded as an individual, rather than as a whole, or as a group. Quite often, he thought of success not as being measured by where someone ends up in the long run, but rather the obstacles and the hardships that they overcame to get to where they are now. He references the enslavement of African Americans in the sense that he encourages them to “cast down their buckets where they are” (Washington 58). This meaning that former slaves should perform the services that they know how to do. They should strive for education and equality but they should not attempt to be highly educated, businessmen right away. Rather a farmer, or a chef because they already have the skill set needed for these occupations. In doing so, Washington solely believed that white folk would notice how vital African Americans were to American society and that they would grant African Americans social equality and end the war on

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