Address Delivered at Hampton Institute by Booker T. Washington - Essay Sample

Introduction

Illiteracy and ignorance, according to Booker T. Washington, were among the main factors that made the African Americans be enslaved and mistreated for a very long time without realizing their full potential and what they can do. In the 1890s, the level of illiteracy among the African Americans was so high; thus, they were not able to come up with proper decisions that could solve their problems. It is due to this that the White man took advantage and made the best out of them through slavery. Washington, an African American whose father was a White and mother an African American, in his address suggested that African Americans needed to solve their problems through hard work and building an economic foundation at the expense of education and civil rights. He delivered this address through a speech and several other speeches like in Hampton Institute. The main aim of this paper thus is to vividly look at this speech and some of the main reasons as to why Washington was opting for education as the only source of deliverance from slavery.

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Being among the few and first educated individuals in the African American community, Washington knew the importance of hard work and education and the impacts that they could bring to his peoples' communities. In his speech he instead that instead of the African Americans being victims of a war that they cannot win against their White enslavers, they should first work hard, towards creating a stable economy that could sustain them. He tells them to aim towards forming united common labor where they work towards the same goal as a whole without any division among them and with this, they will be able to attain the unity they need in future so that they fight in a stronger way. It is indeed evident that through hard work and unity that Washington was advising, today the African American society can work together in a civilized manner towards a common goal.

As claimed by Washington, by building a successful Black community first through education which aims for the future, African Americans could become strong enough to fight for their civil rights and social integration. In his speech and address to the African Americans to instead, cast down their buckets and focus in making friends from the people surrounding them, in growth in terms of agriculture, mechanism and professions through education. A few years later, Washington became among the most influential in the African American community. He, however, got criticized by some other influential people like Du Bois who funnily enough, followed his advice and went to school to gain more degrees and supported Washington's claims of first bettering their economy through education and then fight for their civil rights later. Education and bettering of profession indeed were the only ways with which the African American could have used to win the war of slavery and civil rights. The White took advantage of the Black as they knew he could not survive alone as their economy was poor. The African Americans could not have been able to fight against the people they had depended on for their daily bread, and thus by building a better economy, they became independent and could fight for their civil rights.

In his speech, Washington addressed the issue of religion and salvation as a way of bettering the lives of African Americans. He believed that through salvation and religion, a better society that is united and at peace with one another could emerge, and through unity, they could fight for their civil rights as well.

It is indeed evident that by bettering the economy and looking towards their feature, African Americans were able to get united and fight for their civil rights and freedom as addressed by Washington. Education thus is the most appropriate tool for fighting a more civilized war. The suggestion by Washington that African Americans needed to solve their problems through hard work and building an economic foundation at the expense of education and civil rights was indeed the solution as today African Americans can come up with a united fight against oppression and for civil rights as a good percentage of them are educated and they have a stable economy that can independently sustain them.