The Education of Booker T. Washington: American Democracy and the Idea of Race Relations

In this illuminating intellectual biography, Holy Cross historian and Africana Studies director West presents the "intertwined history of an idea and a man": Booker T. Washington as the progenitor of "race relations." Challenging the existing historiography on the Tuskegee Institute founder who legitimized the Jim Crow system, West argues that he was not simply a "black conservative" or a pragmatist, but rather "a man whose ambition to lead black people became entangled in the treacherous shoals of the post–reconstruction era Negro problem." Specifically—and provocatively—West argues that Washington was seen as "the Negro leader" by whites because he argued that democracy and segregation, two clearly contradictory ideas, could coexist, thereby defusing racial tension but also replacing the cause of justice with an amorphous promise of "progress." West's study stands out for its innovative argument as well as the author's deep personal investment in the subject matter and his evocative, even lyrical prose style. Furthermore, this valuable investigation illustrates the presence of Washington's ideas "at the back of the civil rights era's dramatic unfolding and ambiguous result," showing how intractable and serious the problem of racial injustice remains. (Feb.)