A sort of fantasy of justice (of the sort, if I could I would say to this person. With that said, I confess that in the abstract my mind permits itself to condemn evildoers and enjoy my contempt for them. I cannot allow myself indignation-at least when my conscience is consulted, when cooler minds have prevailed. I am genuinely uncertain about Christianity’s denunciation of anger and its inability to admit righteous indignation (many would dispute this last feature, I recognize, but I cannot see how that is consonant with Jesus’ teachings). Washington also took from Christ the credo that there is no benefit in anger or enmity and that the transgressions of others are their own burdens. Washington standing on a stage in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. But most live uneasily, where ideas and reality invariably and frequently conflict.īooker T. Some live easily between them (adherents of the meritocracy, frequently Republicans), where ideas seem to have license over reality. Washington’s ideas are unimpeachable in a nation of ideas, yet perhaps not in a real country. This man is the priest of the high church of meritocracy, in its non-critical sense. Nor does it mean Up From Manual To Intellectual Labor, even though this is mostly true of Washington’s life. Up From Slavery does not mean Up From Unending Toil. Although the references to Christianity are few, the Protestant work ethic and its belief in the incontrovertible power of labor to transform the laborer are impressed deeply into each page. He means by this that he has worked hard enough that at each point those holding an opportunity have been forced to give it to him, because he’s earned it. Washington’s argument is his life: he’s made himself “indispensable,” and this he demands of every student that comes to Tuskegee. It doesn’t really refer to the fight for political and civil rights at all.

However, Up From Slavery (hereafter UFS) doesn’t explicitly address delaying political and civil rights. Du Bois says in his book The Souls of Black Folk. Up From Slavery certainly argues for an industrial and agricultural training for blacks, as W.E.B. What I learnt about Washington from Up From Slavery

Back to Du Bois and justice, forgiveness’s crucible.Speaking of ideas, how about forgiveness.What I learnt about Washington from Up From Slavery.

Up from slavery