Booker T. Washington: True Believer
[Reprinted from American Enterprise Magazine,
September/October 1995]
Booker T. Washington might have expressed the same ideas in different terms,
but he probably would have agreed with the major theme of Joel Kotkin’s
recent book, Tribes. Kotkin selects five of America’s immigrant
ethnic groups to demonstrate how each--Jews, Chinese, Japanese, British and
Indian--achieved economic dominance primarily due to a tradition of strong
ethnic ties.
In each case, cultural identity acted as a positive force, inspiring trust
and mutual dependence, that were to be the catalysts for phenomenal success in
business. Members of these groups, not only expanded the American economic pie,
but went on to create their own peculiar niches. Each group became, as Kotkin
puts it, "embedded in the American economy."
At the turn of this century, a very similar idea ruled Washington’s
vision of the role of blacks in America. It was his determination that his
people should create for themselves, "through the struggle toward economic
success," an indispensable place in the American economy. He spoke of
blacks "knitting our business and industrial relations" to those of
others, so that the contribution of blacks would become "essential to the
welfare of the republic."
In 1900, at the founding convention of the National Negro Business League,
there was good reason to hope that these aspirations would come to fruition.
After all, the purpose of establishing the League was to help black men and
women who had already achieved success in business, to become even more
effective entrepreneurs.
"It is easily seen," wrote Washington, " that if every member
of the race should strive to make himself the most indispensable man in his
community, and to be successful in business, however humble that business might
be, he would contribute much towards smoothing the pathway of his own and
future generations."
As a keen observer of the behavior of other ethnic groups, Washington
reflected on their mutual cooperation, which eased the path to business
success. At one point, he cautioned blacks that if they did not find their
place in the economic scheme of things, there were sure to be more immigrants
coming to the shores of America who would eagerly fill the void.
With resources scarce among blacks, Washington stressed all the more the
critical importance of group solidarity. He encouraged blacks to emulate others
and create the financial resources needed to continue the upward climb.
Independence and self-sufficiency could best be achieved when blacks, working
cooperatively, would "gain knowledge, experience and wealth within our own
ranks."
By the time of this first convention of the League, thousands of blacks had
already demonstrated their capacity to seize opportunities. Many engaged in the
skilled trades, since every type of craft had been learned by the slaves.
Later, blacks took advantage of the fact that most crafts businesses could be
started with little capital.
As noted in a 1950 study, The Negro in American Business, "The
Negro in the South was not only proficient as a carpenter, blacksmith,
shoemaker, barber, tailor and cook, but as a result of almost two and a half
centuries of slavery, up to the outbreak of the Civil War, the knowledge of
these skills was concentrated almost exclusively in the hands of the Negroes,
free and slave."
By the late 18th century, blacks were an economic presence in several
cities. In Philadelphia, which was regarded as the largest and most important
center of free black life in the country, a 1798 report showed that almost 25%
of the black families used their property for business. The city was renowned
for its excellent restaurants and caterer--both fields monopolized by blacks.
Success stories were common also in southern cities like Richmond, Norfolk,
Charleston (NC), Baltimore and the District of Columbia. In Virginia, property
ownership among free blacks doubled between 1830 and 1860, and in Tennessee,
real estate owned by blacks tripled during the decade of 1850-60. Before the
end of slavery, Savannah had more free blacks and black businesses than any
other municipality in Georgia, and there were many successful businesses in
Macon. The wealthiest free black in Georgia was James Boisclair, who owned a
popular saloon and the largest dry goods store in Dahlonega.
These blacks clearly understood the connection between the ownership of
businesses and property and the ability to have greater control over what
happened in their lives. Historian Juliet Walker points out that, "In
pre-Civil War America, even the absence of political freedom did not preclude
the business participation of blacks as creative capitalists. . . . Antebellum
blacks developed enterprises in virtually every area important to the pre-Civil
War business community."
The very principle that protected property rights in general, including
slave ownership, was what protected blacks’ rights to own personal
property. Walker writes, "It was the very sanctity of private property in
American life and thought that allowed blacks, slave and free, to participate
in the antebellum economy as entrepreneurs."
• • •
By the turn of the century, it was clear that a spirit of enterprise
prevailed among large numbers of blacks. It was Washington’s mission to
find the methods to transmit this spirit to still greater numbers. He made an
appeal to group identity, to the individual’s responsibility to play his
part in uplifting the race.
That it would take black helping black was a given. Self-help began with
each person’s willingness to commit himself to the discipline of work, no
matter how modest the labor. Like others before and after him, Washington
linked moral virtues to his "bootstraps" philosophy of self-help. The
defining expression born in this period, that which exhorted blacks to live
their lives so that each would become a "credit to the race," still
rings in the latent memories of many.
Washington’s teaching of capital development through work and thrift
acknowledged the customs so characteristic of other economically successful
groups. By emphasizing the importance of industriousness, thrift and sobriety,
he sought to link a homespun nationalism to a personal commitment to the
ongoing improvement of the race.
If the legacy of slavery had its countless adverse consequences, then it was
up to blacks to discover a positive legacy on which to capitalize and turn to
their advantage. As a former slave, Washington was well-acquainted with the
humiliation of bondage, yet he had no patience with those who would replay the
sins of the past. With all of its ambiguities, he still viewed America as a
land of opportunity for blacks. He declared, "We should not permit our
grievances to overshadow our opportunities." Yes, it was possible for
blacks themselves to retrieve from the years of degradation the means for
economic and moral uplift, and to find, through their own effort,
"compensations for the losses suffered."
Washington’s rational, optimistic message was fully appreciated by a
great many blacks of the time. In 1899, when William Pettiford became head of
the black-owned Alabama Penny Loan & Savings in Birmingham, he was
determined that the bank should be a tool of instruction for Birmingham’s
blacks. His goal was to educate ordinary people in the principles of saving and
thrift, to impart the importance of sacrificing today to build for tomorrow.
After a successful advertising campaign to recruit new depositors, Pettiford
discovered that about 90% of his new customers had never before held bank
accounts. Regarding it his duty to encourage the wise use of money, he set
about educating all who walked through his bank’s doors in finance and
investment, while providing loans and other services. Pettiford claimed that by
encouraging blacks to save and make prudent investments, "it has been
possible to stimulate a wholesome desire among our people to become property
owners and substantial citizens."
Penny Savings became well known for granting loans for home building and
business development. The bank was praised also for the role it played in
keeping the money of blacks "constantly in circulation in our immediate
community." Washington called the operation of Penny Loan & Savings
the best illustration of "how closely the moral and spiritual interests of
our people are interwoven with their material and economical welfare." He
praised Pettiford because he was "far-seeing enough to attempt to develop
this wealth that is latent in the Negro people."
Just as honorable were those blacks who used financial clout to combat
racism. Washington celebrated Harlem Realtor Philip Payton, who attained
national attention when he and other black realtors bought two apartment
buildings in order to prevent the eviction of black tenants by bigoted white
landlords. A newspaper editorial cited Payton’s actions as an
"unexpected and novel method of resisting race prejudice."
Payton’s sense of responsibility epitomized all that Washington sought
to teach. By acquiring wealth as Payton had done, blacks could slap bigotry in
the face, and be prepared to move confidently into the future, when legal
restrictions were at last lifted.
• • •
Throughout the worst days of Jim Crow constraints, Washington never doubted
that efforts to win full legal rights would eventually succeed. He said,
"It is important and right that all privileges of law be ours, but it is
vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these
privileges." This is why he saw in a healthy business class the key to the
future. He held business men and women to a high standard, since he believed
they had a unique responsibility to the race. On their success depended the
building of a sound economic foundation upon which everything else would rest.
To people like Washington, the businessman was the ultimate role model.
"It was evident," he wrote "that the success of Negro
businessmen was largely dependent upon, and would tend to instill into the mass
of the Negro people, habits of system and fidelity in the small details of
life, and that these habits would bring with them feelings of self-reliance and
self-respect, which are the basis of all real progress, moral or
material."
In turning obstacles and difficulties to advantage, claimed Washington,
"the Negro businessman has a peculiar opportunity for service, an
opportunity that is offered to no other class among the members of the
race." He wanted all blacks to take pride in the race’s business
people. In referring to the perseverance required by black entrepreneurs to
overcome what often seemed like insurmountable obstacles, he once reflected,
"I was never more proud than I am today that I am a Negro. I am proud and
grateful to be identified with a race which has made such creditable progress
in the face of discouragement and difficulty."
After the National Negro Business League was founded in 1900, between each
annual convention impressive numbers of new black enterprises were founded.
Fannie Barrier Williams had been an observer at the fourth annual convention of
the League, which met in Nashville. In writing to a Chicago newspaper, she said
of the meeting, "It was an excellent tonic for drooping and discouraged
spirits to be in this bracing atmosphere of optimism . . . . The business
interests created by the members of the League, and belonging solely to its
members and associates, will measure up to over $2,000,000. From the Wall
Street standpoint this is not much, but from the standpoint of men who are
merely learning to live and learning to be something in a nation of great
things, it is all-important and inspiring."
The business successes of blacks during the 18th and 19th centuries came
during the period before severe Jim Crow restrictions went into effect in the
South. But even after such biased laws were in place, great numbers of blacks
continued to found businesses, turning sections of some cities into what
historian John Sibley Butler describes as "entrepreneurial enclaves."
Serious damage was done to black economic development by laws that
prevented the expansion of businesses beyond the limited borders of segregated
black neighborhoods. But even greater damage was caused by the later arrival of
a black leadership whose teachings were vastly different from those of people
like Washington, Pettiford and Payton. Blacks now were guided to view their
problems as beyond their abilities to resolve; to look outward, especially to
government, for solutions; and to see themselves as objects of sympathy.
Washington’s greatest fears came true. By the time of the legal
victories in the 1960s, the earlier spirit of enterprise had been depleted, and
a new civil rights vision redefined the mission and the goals. The call to
group solidarity now became a strategy primarily to coerce benefits from
whites, or "the system." Even self-help was redefined as an
initiative first requiring the input of whites.
The moral force of earlier leaders, who had galvanized tens of thousands of
blacks to work toward economic independence and self-reliance, ceased to carry
influence. As new leaders recharted the course and established different
agendas, Booker T. Washington’s call for blacks to make themselves
economically indispensable faded into a distant echo.
See also
Booker T. Washington: Legacy Lost
The Movable School
A Trip to the Southwest
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