Booker T. Washington’s Critics
While Washington had a loyal following among some whites and blacks, his views were criticized by those in northern cities, southern black colleges, and educated black professionals who believed in political and civil rights, liberal education, and free expression. Critics called him many names such as, Pope Washington, the Black Boss, The Benedict Arnold of the Negro Race, and the Great Traitor.
Critics such as William Monroe Trotter and W.E.B. Du Bois were among his most vocal opponents. Trotter, founder of the Boston Guardian, caused a stir in 1903 when he interrupted Washington’s speech at a Boston Church. Trotter inundated Washington with questions that challenged his views, but his questions remained unanswered when Washington ignored him. Trotter was quickly arrested for disorderly conduct. The event was widely reported in newspapers, and became known as the “Boston Riot.”
Another vocal critic, W.E. B. Du Bois, agreed with many of Trotter’s criticism of Washington, and believed that Washington was misguided in his assertion that blacks should seek economic equality first. Du Bois instead asserted that economic security was not enough, and that blacks must become educated.
The Secret Life of Booker T. Washington
Although Washington publicly asserted that economic stability was most important, after his death when The Booker T. Washington Papers became public, it became known that he also tried to change lynching, disenfranchisement, and unequal facilities in education and transportation.
Among his several projects, Washington secretly worked with the National Afro-American Council on a court case that tested the constitutionality of a Louisiana grandfather clause. He funded the case with his own money and with the money of northern liberal white friends. Washington also had his lawyer secretly challenge an Alabama grandfather clause. It went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but lost on technicalities.
Washington also helped blacks who could not afford legal services. In one case, Washington got the criminal verdict against a black man overturned because blacks were excluded from the jury that had convicted him. In addition, Washington and two southern white attorneys got an Alabama peonage law declared unconstitutional after farm laborer, Alonzo Bailey, was held in peonage for debt.
After spending the latter part of his life serving as president of Tuskegee and as a black leader, on November 14, 1915, Washington died of arteriosclerosis at St. Luke's Hospital in New York.
While Washington's views and priority of economic self-sufficiency over civil and political rights were controversial, Washington created a successful educational institution that is still in existence today and has become the degree granting college, Tuskegee University.
