My New Project

[Ultimate Fist]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X changed my life. After I read it, I had to know everything I could about brother Malcolm. I researched for hours and for the last two years, studying things he did, or his mentors did has been a regular preoccupation of mine.

I have decided to take this study to the next level and I invite anyone who interested to join me. I have decided to research Malcolm X's ideas back to their root. This is what I mean; Malcolm X studied under Elijah Muhammad; Elijah Muhammad studied under W. F. Muhammad; W.F. Muhammad was influenced by Noble Drew Ali; Noble Drew Ali was inspired to offer the Moorish Science teachings to people as a religious counterpart to the teachings of Marcus Garvey. Marcus Garvey's philosophy was inspired by Booker T. Washington. I'm going to study each person on this chain of ideas in detail, starting with Booker T. Washington and ending with a revisit to Malcolm X's ideas. As I go along, I'll post whatever I'm studying by one of the people in this group. I'll be studying with anyone who goes on; I'm posting it before I finish reading it.

I'll start with Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington is widely considered to be the first Civil Rights leader after the end of slavery. Pessimistic about the ability of white society to accept blacks in his generation, he advocated that black people try to make themselves appear "respectible" in hopes that future generations of whites could accept them. He was widely criticized as what would today be called an "Uncle Tom" by many critics, most notably NAACP founder WEB DuBouis, who began to push for integration. (It should be noted however that he did secretly give money to pro-integration groups.) His vision of self-sufficiency for blacks however would influence black nationalism and ultimately black power. Marcus Garvey reportedly left Jamaica for America immediately after finishing Up From Slavery in hopes of meeting Washington but he died before Garvey arrived.

Here are his books:

Up From Slavery (his autobiography)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/washington/menu.html
My Larger Education
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/washeducation/menu.html

A short bio:

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/b...shington_b.htm

"Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Hale's Ford, Virginia, reportedly on April 5, 1856. After emancipation, his family was so poverty stricken that he worked in salt furnaces and coal mines beginning at age nine. Always an intelligent and curious child, he yearned for an education and was frustrated when he could not receive good schooling locally. When he was 16 his parents allowed him to quit work to go to school. They had no money to help him, so he walked 200 miles to attend the Hampton Institute in Virginia and paid his tuition and board there by working as the janitor.

Dedicating himself to the idea that education would raise his people to equality in this country, Washington became a teacher. He first taught in his home town, then at the Hampton Institute, and then in 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. As head of the Institute, he traveled the country unceasingly to raise funds from blacks and whites both; soon he became a well-known speaker.

In 1895, Washington was asked to speak at the opening of the Cotton States Exposition, an unprecedented honor for an African American. His Atlanta Compromise speech explained his major thesis, that blacks could secure their constitutional rights through their own economic and moral advancement rather than through legal and political changes. Although his conciliatory stand angered some blacks who feared it would encourage the foes of equal rights, whites approved of his views. Thus his major achievement was to win over diverse elements among southern whites, without whose support the programs he envisioned and brought into being would have been impossible.

In addition to Tuskegee Institute, which still educates many today, Washington instituted a variety of programs for rural extension work, and helped to establish the National Negro Business League. Shortly after the election of President William McKinley in 1896, a movement was set in motion that Washington be named to a cabinet post, but he withdrew his name from consideration, preferring to work outside the political arena. He died on November 14, 1915."

[Ultimate Fist]

The first chapter of Up From Slavery makes me feel very sad. It really captures what slavery was like first hand. I can't believe Mr. Washington remains so optimistic.

I think the first chapter also captures the awkward intertwining of the slaves and their masters. Even though the slaves were in a horrible condition under the masters, they shared emotional attachments to one another to different degrees. Here for example:

"One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was bitter feeling toward the white people on the part of my race, because of the fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was successful. In the case of the slaves on our place this was not true, and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency. During the Civil War one of my young masters was killed, and two were severely wounded. I recall the feeling of sorrow which existed among the slaves when they heard of the death of "Mars' Billy." It was no sham sorrow, but real. Some of the slaves had nursed "Mars' Billy"; others had played with him when he was a child. "Mars' Billy" had begged for mercy in the case of others when the overseer or master was thrashing them."

***
Later on in the chapter, I find the love the slaves had for their masters kind of weird and it definitely shows they were taught by society to put the masters before themselves.

***

Now here's a quote I would love to hear people's opinions on because I don't think even Bill Cosby could get away with saying this today:

" Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did... The slave system on our place, in a large measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white people...The girls were not taught to cook, sew, or to take care of the house. All of this was left to the slaves."

Since we've lost most of the skills we would have gained from plantation life over the last 100 years, I don't think this quote is too relevant today. I will say however that I respect Mr. Washington's attempt to shed a positive light on a bad situation.

[Ultimate Fist]

Up From Slavery Chapter 2

The second chapter is interesting because it talks about things that still go on today in the black community. People attending night classes because they can't do day school. People educating themselves. The whole thing with the hats reminds me of shoes today.

I found it interesting that the slaves tried to change their names. That's something we're still doing today too.

Damn, not much has changed in a century. I wonder if it will be any different in another 100 years.

And one of Booker's most famous quotes is in this chapter, one I'd love to build on with someone (if anyone's out there... Hello?):

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race."

[Dooch]

Up From Slavery was an interesting read. It gave you actual perspective from a former slave. Its didnt really surprise me that the masters and slaves needed eachother so much. They needed eachother to survive at the time. Abolition of slavery meant the end of any kind of 'security' a slave had. The masters housed and fed them and kept other whites away. It was similar to serfdom inthe Mid ages.

[Ultimate Fist]

Up From Slavery was an interesting read. It gave you actual perspective from a former slave. Its didnt really surprise me that the masters and slaves needed eachother so much. They needed eachother to survive at the time. Abolition of slavery meant the end of any kind of 'security' a slave had. The masters housed and fed them and kept other whites away. It was similar to serfdom inthe Mid ages.

Yeah, they became family. A dysfunctional family but family nonetheless.

[Ultimate Fist]

And could someone make a sticky of this. I'm planning on keeping this thread going for a long time.

[Ultimate Fist]

No diss but this really isn't a book thread. When I get to Marcus Garvey, and W.F. Muhammad, neither of them wrote books. Could someone move this back where it was before please?

[maestro wooz]

he advocated that black people try to make themselves appear "respectible" in hopes that future generations of whites could accept them. He was widely criticized as what would today be called an "Uncle Tom" by many critics, most notably NAACP founder WEB DuBouis,

theres a fine line, the only way to overcome is to walk it

[Ultimate Fist]

Chapter 3 is simply amazing. He walks to a college he wants to go to with no money and still gets in. I'm scared to get out in the real world and I'm still living at home! This guy is awesome. Uncle Tom my ass, this should be required reading in schools!

[SubtleEnergies]

I started reading today! What timing.