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g c's List: DuBois and Washington

  • Dec 21, 09

    To provide context for our readings of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, carefully read this page which provides a brief overview of the Harlem Renaissance.

    Created and updated by Paul Reuben at California State University-Stanislaus, this page is part of a larger American literature site called "PAL: Perspectives on American Literature." It isn't the most beautiful site on the web (neither is mine), but it has tons of useful information, and if you hit the "personalities" link, you can see photographs of many of the movers and shakers of the Harlem Renaissance whom we will be reading.

  • Dec 21, 09

    To begin our understanding of Booker T. Washington, read this brief biography provided by the editors of the Heath Anthology of American Literature.

  • Dec 21, 09

    This page is part of the Legends of Tuskegee site which is maintained by the National Park Service. It discusses Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee Institute, the school in Alabama from which he developed his fame and influence. I think you will have a much clearer idea of the plans he advocated for the educational and economic development of African Americans around the turn of the 19th century if you surf around in this site for a few minutes.

    After looking through these pages, continue to Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery at the next spot on the list.

  • Dec 21, 09

    To begin our reading of Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, start at the beginning of Chapter 1 and continue 3/4 down the page. Stop at " . . . a good Providence has already led us."

  • Dec 21, 09

    Read all of Chapter 3 from Up From Slavery.

    In the intervening chapter, Washington, at the age of ten, has taken a job in a coal mine in order to help his family make ends meet.

  • Mar 24, 09

    Continue reading Up From Slavery at the beginning of Chapter 6 and read a little more than halfway down this page. Stop at ". . . the more does one raise one's self by giving the assistance."

    At the beginning of this chapter, Washington is referencing a year he spent in Washington, D.C. studying theology at the Wayland Seminary.

    • it appeared to me to be reasonably certain that I could succeed in political life,
    • I think I may say, without seeming egotism, that it is seldom that five years have wrought such a change in the life and aspirations of an individual.

    1 more annotation...

  • Dec 21, 09

    Scroll down the Chapter 13 webpage until you reach the paragraph that begins "On the morning of September 17 . . ." about 3/4 down the page.

    Read from this paragraph to the end of Chapter 13.

  • Mar 24, 09

    Read all of Chapter 14 from Up From Slavery.

    The Atlanta Cotton States and International exhibit took place in September, 1895. Washington gave his speech during the opening ceremonies.

    This is the end of our reading from Up From Slavery.

    • A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, "Water, water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, "Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the signal, "Water, water; send us water!" ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.
    • In all things that are purely social we can be as separate  as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

    2 more annotations...

  • Mar 24, 09

    To start our reading of W.E.B DuBois' The Souls of Black Folks, read all of Chapter 1..

    The third paragraph (which begins "After the Egyptian and the Indian . . .") is the famous paragraph which introduces the idea that has come to be called double-consciousness. He continues developing these ideas very specifically in the fourth and fifth paragraphs.

    • After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, --a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
  • Mar 24, 09

    Continue reading The Souls of Black Folks by reading all of Chapter 3.

    Pay particular attention to DuBois' criticisms of Booker T. Washington and how these connect to your own ideas having read portions of Washington's autobiography.

    • To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington's first task; and this, at the time Tuskegee was founded, seemed, for a black man, well-nigh impossible. And yet ten years later it was done in the word spoken at Atlanta: "In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." This "Atlanta Compromise" is by all odds the most notable thing in Mr. Washington's career. The South interpreted it in different ways: the radicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality; the conserva- tives, as a generously conceived working basis for mutual understanding. So both approved it, and to-day its author is certainly the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis, and the one with the largest personal following.
    • To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington's first task; and this, at the time Tuskegee was founded, seemed, for a black man, well-nigh impossible. And yet ten years later it was done in the word spoken at Atlanta: "In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." This "Atlanta Compromise" is by all odds the most notable thing in Mr. Washington's career. The South interpreted it in different ways: the radicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality; the conserva- tives, as a generously conceived working basis for mutual understanding. So both approved it, and to-day its author is certainly the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis, and the one with the largest personal following.
  • Dec 21, 09

    This is a site connected with PBS's program "Frontline." The site offers some background information on the differences between these two men and offers links to some interesting sites. Reading this page may help you more clearly understand the debate between these two thinkers.

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