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Washington’s belief that newly freed slaves had to get a handle on being self-sufficient before true equality (especially their ability to vote) would be all that beneficial got pummeled by Du Bois during its time and the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, which drew largely from the ideas of Du Bois, in favor of his more aggressive push for instant equality.

Washington felt that newly freed slaves and their children needed to know how to read, write, and do arithmetic in order to avoid being taken advantage of by a system rigged against them. The fact is that there were race-hustlers in the reconstruction era that eclipse the manipulativeness and deceit of the ones the right claims exist today. There was much profit to be made off of newly freed slaves.

Much of his stance on not needing to integrate with white folks, “as separate as the fingers” on the hand, had more to do with white folks not meddling in the journey of vulnerable black folks on their way “Up from Slavery” than it did with any real belief in segregation as a right or just policy. It was a convenient policy that would minimize white folks further damaging black folks that just so happened to already be in place.

But since the white man tells history, and since Washington was labeled a Uncle Tom circa the Civil Rights movement, we never hear that side of the story.

Washington is a favorite of the Tea Party because of the “Atlanta Compromise” and his complaint that black people were being agitated by what Fox News now calls “race hustlers.” Washington was concerned that black folks would become professional victims.

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ThatDudeThatARP2
2/06/17 1:00pm
Washington’s belief that newly freed slaves had to get a handle on being self-sufficient before true equality (especially their ability to vote) would be all that beneficial got pummeled by Du Bois during its time and the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, which drew largely from the ideas of Du Bois, in favor of his more aggressive push for instant equality.

Washington felt that newly freed slaves and their children needed to know how to read, write, and do arithmetic in order to avoid being taken advantage of by a system rigged against them. The fact is that there were race-hustlers in the reconstruction era that eclipse the manipulativeness and deceit of the ones the right claims exist today. There was much profit to be made off of newly freed slaves.

Much of his stance on not needing to integrate with white folks, “as separate as the fingers” on the hand, had more to do with white folks not meddling in the journey of vulnerable black folks on their way “Up from Slavery” than it did with any real belief in segregation as a right or just policy. It was a convenient policy that would minimize white folks further damaging black folks that just so happened to already be in place.

But since the white man tells history, and since Washington was labeled a Uncle Tom circa the Civil Rights movement, we never hear that side of the story.