It may seem strange to call someone who never held government office a “statesman,” but Booker T. Washington has a claim to that august title. His admirers regularly drew the comparison between Washington and his namesake, George Washington. Like President Washington, Booker T. Washington had as his primary project the strengthening of fraternal bonds between citizens, believing such bonds to be the necessary foundation for constitutional liberty.
In his Farewell Address, George Washington had prayed that “Union and brotherly affection may be perpetual.” Despite these words of counsel, the Union nearly foundered on the moral and geographic sandbar of slavery. After the Civil War, there was tremendous work to be done, as Lincoln said, “to bind up the nation’s wounds” and “to achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves.” This was the task that Booker T. Washington set for himself. Not only did he put forth a solution to the main problem left unresolved by the Founding Fathers-whether and how blacks would become full participants in the American polity-but he also made significant strides in implementing that solution. This virtual seminar will delve into Washington’s writings to understand both his remarkable personal accomplishments and his redemptive moral vision and subtle statesmanship.
hertogfoundation.org/courses/the-writings-of-booker-t-washington