Chapter nine EPILOGUE: BLACK LEADERSHIP: CONTINUITIES AND CONTRASTS Negro leaders should be y wed from the standpoints of the two castes and their interests. The white caste has an interest in supporting those Negro leade! Negro caste h it does not damagi from the whit who can transfer their influence upon the lower caste, The s two interests: one, to express the Negro protest as far as c its immediate welfare; two, to get as much as possible The partly contradictory interests of the Negro community can be taken care of by the same individual leaders or by several different leade: Booker ‘I, Washington, W. and Martin Luther King developed app in a division of responsibility, (Myrdal, An American Dileinma)! seems to me,” said Booker T., tall you folks have missed the boat who shout about the right to vote, And spend vain days and sleepless nights In uproar over civil rights, Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse, But work, and save, and buy a house,” J don't agree,’ said W.E.B., “For what can property avail If dignity and justice fail? Unless you help to make the laws, They'll steal your house with trumped-up clause, A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot, No matter how much cash you've got Speak soft, und try your little plan, But as for me, Ml be a man,” {1 seems to me,’ said Booker T. ~ ‘J don't agre' Said W.E.B, (Dudley Randall, ‘Booker T, and W.E,B.? 1, B, Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X 1 and utilized distinctive personal s in their attempts to eliminate (or improve) the inferior caste 133Black Leadership in America 1895-1968 educational, cultural, political and psychological advancement. All followers, and encouraged the self-help ethic. With the ence) tion o imirer of both tended to blame Negroes largely for their condition, and both placed more emphasis on sel-help and duties than on rights... both placed economic advancement belore vni hood suffrage, and both were wiling to accept franchise restrictions based not upon race but ‘on eduication and/or property qualifications equitably applied.” In time, Du Bois was equally opposed to Washington's apparent acceptance of disfranchisement and segregation, and Garvey’s Washington-derived vision of a black economy as well ashis rejection of the possibility of an egalitarian biracial society in the United States. Ironically, Du Bois came to agree with both Washington and Garvey ‘on the necessity of the “black economy” which was Booker T Washington's original idea, and then on the "Back to Africa” possibilty which was Garvey's main platform which. in turn was a further elaboration of the black economy theme’. In assessing the contributions ofthese five black leaders tothe causes which they represented, 2 historical perspective reveals the changing connotations of such concepts as ‘integration’, ‘segregation’, ‘accommodation’ and ‘civil rights’. Morcover, such a perspective also suggests that the adjectives ‘radical’ and ‘conservative’ when applied to black leaders and the policies they espoused, reflect particular conditions and circumstances. To his contemporary critics, Washington's deprecation of political action and support for social separation of the races, smacked of supine surrender to white supremacy. The NAACP, which institutionalized Negro opposition to Washington and the Tuskegee Machine, was at its inception a radical 154 Epilogue | 4 to securing poitial pariipation and racial integra wpe ont lslam,andtheriseofBlack | irae egade,ceparatsin was seen asa radien” response 0 the ovr in frorameercans while integration, the agreed goal ofthe | diem of Ae Nha the evil rights coalition, was regarded 3 ai ee eeounger generation of blacks who rejected former Smitionsr'. They advocated instead, a form of areal puuraiamea ‘Negro nation within a nation’ without sulltfent arenes of earlier formulations of the conccpt Fe agads when Malcolm X and Martin Luther King appeared as th nol exrenes of tack leadership, 50 too in the early twentieth weanicl Washington and Du Bois (and later, Du Bois and Garey) sea. enfiting philosophies of racial advancement. Their eres personal rhalres also reflected a constant problem facing Tez kaude in Ameria: the inability of any one programme of racial atest i cnconipuss the varieties and changes in the Black experience. Wralung ia 1937, the social poychologist Joha Dollard observed: | 1K will de noted that the official attitude of southern Negro leaders ik= Booker T. Washington, has been conciliatory and accommodative, | whereas the most active hostility to caste has come from the northern | ‘ariovs associations, of which peshaps Dr W. E. B. | tional Association for the Advancement of Coloured | People arc representative, One might say that the difference between | Washington and Da Bois is due to a difference in regional cultures | Washington wanted to do something in the South, whiis Du Bois wished to mobilire hosts sentiment against the caste institution and make clear the contradiction between the formal American definition of the status of the Negro and actualitis of his stuation.* Negroes and ths Du Bois and the From the end of Reconstruction to the Second World War, Southern black leadership was forced to operate within the “separate but ¢qual” framework of race relations, Whatever influence Southern black leaders possessed was (as in the case of Booker T. Washington), exercised through white intermediaries. Blacks generally accepted these leaders because they had no other choice. But during the 1950s and 1960s, more assertive Southern black leaders began to emphasize aspirations which ran counter to white customs and mores. Next to racial intermarriage land sextal relations between black men and white women, the South's ‘rank order of discriminations’ encompassed: ‘dancing, bathing, eating, drinking together and social intercourse {generally .. the segregations and discriminations in use of public facilities such 9s schools, churches and means of Conveyance... discriminations in law courts, by the police, and by other public servants, Finally came the discriminations in securing land, credit, Jobs, cf otlier means of earning a living, and discriminations in public relief and other social welfare facilties.* 155OR FEEL LETT ETT Black Leadership in America 1895-1968 From the 1950s onwards (asin the case of Manin Luther Kin Southern black eaders= with the rowing support Noniagy sympathizer “began 10 challenge the tdiraIst_ of reed Proserption, “The ernads for cil righ peiflly med atthe Fentvely timed (ane utimatelypracteal fol of abating etal Segregation; i was widely and wrongly) belted that ihe bares to Fatal equality would speed fall That they. fad to doo shoul hot be made reason for condemning the crsase® With” thee conidertions in mind the tags of Booker 7 Washington, W-E 8, Du Bots Marcus Garey, Malcolm Xand Morn Lather King. Jobe regarded a he ive oustanding Ao- American leaders of the period fom 1895 to 1968 can be given more objective fain BOOKER T. WASHINGTON In the circumstances of his time and place, Washington evolved a programme and strategy designed to sccure the acquiescence of Southern and Northern whites in the educational and economic elevation of a rural black peasantry and an aspiring black bourgeoisie. “One of Washington's chief concerns as. black leader was to undermine the old otherworldly ethic of the plantation, and to replace it with an ethic of achievement."* Aware that slavery had brought manual labour into disrepute, Washington (in tune with his age) preached a gospel of hard work, seli-help and self-reliance. His advocacy of industrial education reflected this belief, as it also reconciled Southern whites to the idea of any form of education for blacks. Tuskegee Institute, the Tuskegee Machine and the carefully crafted phrases of the Atlant Compromise Address, made Washington's position as the outstanding Southern black leader of his day virtually unassailable, Above all, Washington was the master tactician, interracial diplomat and archetypal ‘trickste:". In many respects, he bears a striking (and intentional) resemblance to the black college principal, Dr A. Herbert Bledsoe, in Ralph Fllison's novel, nvistble Man, Describing his methods land rise to power in the South to the ingenuous narrator, Bledsoe could well have been retailing Washington's personal success formul [Negeces don't control this school or much of anything else, True they support it, but I contro it I's big and black and I say *Yes, sub,’ as Joudly as any burrhead, wheu it’s convenient, .,. The only ones T even pretend to please are big white folk, and even those I control more than they control ine, | tell them; that's my life, telling white folks how to think about the things I kriow about I don't like it myself, But 1 didn't make it and 1 know that 1 can't change it. I had to 156 Epilogue had to wait and liek fat that it was worth i he game you take 9 do” where Tam. 1h te ie repented imitation 10 move tothe North, Washington ald Despite repeated inva although the growing teat FO that his Work in Sn im ater years, tO sharpen Bi canna of ssl td ol apie pation on Feats Taakegee (and thereby his own feputation), and secu escures of Tisha Gor black shoals and colleges, Unable 19 aie xt such developments as the loss ‘of black voting rights, racial Brevent such, develop exploitation, Washington attempted (both jelenee and oor conan them. As Gunnat Myrdal noted C rceptively, Washington, his critics tO the contrary, was never a totally Perceptve ya: ice leader, and looked to complete equality as the ultimate goal’ of black leadership. bu now Fm hs the prize and Keep it ani ie a politial avon that Negroes can never, in any period, hope 10 sa politeal so trm poner bargin than the most benevolent ered to eve them, With shee insight, ‘much of the Negro protest asd it had vo get he marimm cooperation from ho in this era of ideologies Hi about the Negroes the Northern fea are panthopiss and the Southern uppet class school Sen Remembering the gti eeacion of the “judy br varfous moves without inreasingly For his time, and forthe ‘white groups are Washington took exactly bea big reduction —as was nee the only two white groups i feaction eared anything ata of “pata evi period, itis difficult 10 Feeling that he was a truly great politician. jegroes lived, 138 Ohare he worked and where then nine-tenths of all Negroes li Trelpotey of abstaining from talk of rights and of ‘casting down your thickets where you aie) was entirely ecalisticn™ i intensity of Washinton’ faults were daring is astigmatism on he inns oan or alc, his unquestioning aeeptance of the normative values of white America, his materialism and pbilistinism. Yet despite {or because of these failings, he was, a representative black leader. Frank Hercules is correct in his assertion that it is impossible to findersiand the ethos of Afro-Americans in the main, ‘not that of the Uissentient minority’ unless it is understood that "they are closerin their thinking to Booker ‘T. Washington - and the governing rules of theit behaviour are in more intimate consonance with the'standards he described - than they are to any other representative figarein’ American history. The blacks of America are conservative like Booker T. Washington; Christian like Booker T, Washington; profoundly conscious like Washington - of being, with their former white owners, archetypal Americans." Moreover, duBlack Leodership in America 1895-1958 ascendancy, militant black protest and agitation in the South would have Deena warrant the reality ofthe South's commitment tow evaluation of the situat cal ea ion as realistic and far-sighted. The last black rade to emerge from slavery, Washington not only ted Southern 5, but preserved them from racial catastrophe, But he also lived 'on’s Hughes’ phrase, tospend most of his Geers life with his head ‘in the lion's mouth’. Roronl ae Waning or acaoes emery so satsy Souhe ie xem. Thoms en Tansian: an storie romance ofthe Ku Klux Klan (1908) lege tha Washington, precisely because o hisshilinciogusinghisteal aims was “the greatest diplomat his race has ever produced’. In claimed, Washington was PERNA thor of The quietly preparing the way for the amalgamation of the races, or, and equally dangerous, the building of a separate Negro nation within a nation, Dixon was in no doubt arto the consequences of Washington's educational and economic strategy: education would inevitably polarize the races since “if there is one thing, Southern white man cannot endure itis an educated Negro’. By the same token, Washington's efforts {0 make the Negro int) a potential competitor with the white man could only end in bloodshed. Donleny esas beterslinvren enen Gcleaeestonnert der te afcton ofthe Souhern white an he race vil allow the repro lo maser his nusial system, take the bead Irom hs moth Growd him to the wall and place a morigage on hs howse, Could fatty reach a sublimer height than the idea that the white man will stand idl y by and se this performance. What willbe do wien put tothe test He Wl do exactly what bis white neighbour in the North does when the repro threatens his bread hil him." _ Booker T. Washington, one ofhis biographers contends, has ot been given [air evaluation “partly because his methods, wete too sempromising and unhro: to win hima place inthe black pantheon, but also because he was too complex and enigmatic for historians to Know what to make of him’.? Yet, as J. R. Pole suggests: Washington's role playing, though devious, was not essentially mysterious. Like many people of his basic disposition, he was instinctively supple towards his masters while revealing his authoritarian personality towards subordinates. ... In many ways he emerges as a type femarkable for its familiarity among the operators of American interest groups that familiarity being disguised by skin pigmentation, He Worked assiduously within the system, to whose economic and political Conventions he faithfully subscribed; he took conservative views of larger Social causes while showing great tactical skill in maintaining his own personal power base.'* On all counts Washington was, and remains, a black leader to be reckoned with. 158 izedand respected le supremacy his also failed Epilogue W. E. B. DU BOIS Intelleewatly superior to Washington, Du Bois through all) his Hisblogieal shifts and turns, attempted to resolve whathe regardedand | icon experienced) as being the fundamental dilemma of the Afto- Renerlean: “One ever feels his two-ness” Unlike Washington, Du Bois ‘ways felt himself to be apart from the mass of Negroes and for long atviods of his life was-deliantly out of step with orthodox black responses to such issues as segregation, socialism, Marxism and Pan ari A An inferior (and disinterested) administrator, Du Bois,as | Moe wr crisis, was the outstanding agitator and propagandist of the | Negro protest movement which arose in opposition to Washington's | seer Pind policies, “Where Washington wanted to make Negrocs eatiepreneurs and captains of industry in accordance with the America® caer dream, Du Bois stressed the rote of the college educated Sacre tater developed a vision of a world largely dominated by the ce jad aces which would combine with the white workers in | Seethrowing the domination of white capital and thus secure social justice under socialism." More than any other black leader, Du Bois influenced the Negro: inteligentsa (the Talented Tenth), and contributed to the formation of that Black consciousness which had its floweiing im the Harlem Ronaisssnee, and the growing awareness of black peoples throughout Tho uiatid of their relationship to Africa, ach other and to whites. Da Bois himself admired but was rejected by white society, and out of this fection came. bis reasoned but impassioned hatred of racist TRevimmination, As Frank Hercules suggests. had Du Bois been a Bcitish eaRhial subject, his abilities would have been recognized and rewarded. “They would have knighted him, and as Sir Burghardt Da Bois, he weak have been intellectually estimable, politically reliable, and Heologically harmless. But the Americans, with their crude sversimplification of racial categories, could only make an enemy of him." ‘From the formation of the Niagara Movementto his resignation from. the NAACP, Du Bois (who would have preferred a life ofhistorical and Sociological research bent to the cause of black advancement) was the Singularly gifted spokesman for Negro economic and political rights, and for racial integration. With the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915, the continuing black exodus from the South and the rising expectations of the educated black middle class, Du Bois finally achieved leadership of the Talented Tenth. Simultaneously, he also ‘aged a bitter internal campaign against what he regarded as the élitism, conservatism and narrowness of the organization which had elected him fs its major propagandist. The NAACP rejected Du Bois’ call for Voluntary segregation (which he had first articulated in the 1890s), and 159inspired by a vision of reasoned, ordered and dyn | This vision was perhaps best expressed in the ‘Post Black Leadership in America 1895-1968 did not share his Pan-African or collectiv with the irony that to his black ng s0 mich os coker T. Wachington, Yet Du Bo dpartre from the NAACP, a firmly opposed ony deprivation of Gil, sos or econemie ich and fo aforsd 9 shut whites ovo black organization erate fl ctraesal orga orf escn et ay a ck Colleges or the NAACP tous the centrality of lack powers goal and to make the furthering of | i mee their main NAACP of 1934 to adopt such programme” By ick pride and black economic advance is date, leadershi only on the issue of segre embarrassment if ot a it Bois, however, had multiple careers, which spa of Booker. Wathington, Marcus Gare Male iuther King. In comparison with thes DuB ‘ , Du Bois’ ‘longevity and ProclaeVity Gave piven ars a quantiative csinhardvO match Aste Of his biographers suggests: 1. and to whom Du Bois had become an ‘Du Bois’ significance will emerge more clearly made by him and for him are scuttled sce to the History ofthe Negro in American ements: First, or thirty years he made himself the loudest voice in deimanding equal | Fake ocaeg inal ateaee erator oa ‘acceptance of anything else. ....Du Bois’ second achiev Service to the Negro’s morale. When Booker T. Washington was trai Negro youth for manual work, Du Bois held high the ideal of education, When Washington measured civilization in material terms, Du Bois reminded his people of Socrates and St Francis... His monthly editorials held up the strong, recharged the weak, and flayed the compromisers, Crisis became the record of Negro achievement... In this context, even Du Bois’ aloofness became an asset; it removed him in Negro eyes from everyday life and, by giving him a transcendent quality, it raised the goal of aspiration, . extravagant claims In the course of his long, di uished and eventful | autobiography: 160 «-- this is a beautiful world; this is a wonderful Am founding fathers dreamed until their sons d slavery and devoured it in greed. Our chi the Dreams of the Dead rebuke the Blind who 1 forever and teach them that what was worth living for must Where Du Bois has bitter rival in the Wis iter fo iusprogramme of racial uplift and the redemption of seen icey's efcatest achievement was to arouse in poor and lower, class blacks, the ‘New Negro’, a fierce pride in their colour. Epilogue MARCUS GARVEY Jed to reach a mass black audience, Marcus Garvey; 1920s, was able to build a popular movement and “Y's Feeted by or unaware of the Harlem Renaissance and Ganeysngetanded, transformed the racial consciousness of ACE Garey, Seaton pou inarmen of rasal opi He mowed people in Are oom a xen to an agressive postion one subject of race. The slogan “Black ws Beautiful” was ‘not minted, except sues Of ae mse, by Stokely Carmichael. It was Garvey’s ee oce Peder Douglass and bore I an Pad ale the pride of Nerons i he she cm X ha So aro a used remarkable powers of 3007. fat oe Ringe had cream. In his cae, twas the and, ik Mari a Tait was a dram largely impracticable Soe ei outa to him, ort dd, he concealed it a ons of ack of re from his followers. He spoke as though the then colent (Ktrica did not exist... He sought, in effect, to make ‘Americans and... of blacks everywhere. tore important as a phenomenon than as a social movement, Garveyism struck a responsive chord in the black masses of the 1920s Cees exalted all things black and inverted white standards while < igrge part, the values of the surrounding white scciety. For aiming tte institution and belie, Garveyism offered a black CxoP enpart the Black Star Line, Black Cross Nurses, The Negro World, 28. ative Sons: 0 eriical study of rwentieth cemury black Mac can authors (New York, 1968), p- 1515 REFERENCES 29, Danis, 0..;Why I eulogized Malcolm Si in J. H. Clarke (ed) Malcolm X: Ta neon and his times (New York, 1969), pp. 12834. \ oer ann, By Toe ambiguous lemacy of Meal 2° DIS eee: — 1211965), 189. | Myrdal, G., An American Dilerima (New York, 1948), p. 1133, 1 gee eee conservave eluant fo Ce E-tinedta (oh) Me 2 Rendall, D..-Booker T. and W.E.B.’, in A. Chapman (ed.) Black Voices siete King Jr profile (New York, 1970), p- 187, (Mentor Books, New York, 1968), p. 470 32, Du Bois, W. E- B., Of our spinitual stivings in The Sou!s of Black Folk 3. Meier, A., Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915 (Ai (4361), pp. 17, 2. 1963), p. 196. 4. Cruse, H., Rebellion or Revolution (New York, 1968), p- 157 feted J, Caste and Class in a Southern Town (3r8 ed, New York, 1957), p. 308. 6 Myrdal, op. cit., p. 61 i SMart ed Bolt, C., Power and Protest in American Life (ON O%d, 1980), p. 145. TPP plack Messiahs and Uncle Toms: social and Werat) aeonpulations ofa religious myth (London, 1982). P. St 9. rhea R., Innsible Man (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1952) P. 119. 10, Myrdal, op. cit., p- 741. to eeuls: F,, American Society and Bleck Revolution (Nex York, 1972), pp. 197- es w