Two Visions of Progress: Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington

           

        The differences between Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery are striking. The disagreements are sometimes extreme between the two, but both Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington faced hardships throughout their lives due to being black. Malcolm X’s life was derailed when his father was killed by a group of whites. At this time Malcolm was in school and was on a relatively good track, but after his father’s death Malcolm had to earn money. Malcolm often participated in illegal activities in the next few years of his life which ended up putting him in jail for six years. Booker T. Washington was born a slave and was emancipated when he was nine years old. Booker always wanted to get educated, but he struggled to do that as a young black man. He would occasionally be tutored and he would try to read books, but he often didn’t have the same access to school as the white people. For a short amount of time Booker attended school but as he stated in his autobiography “It was not long before I had to stop attending day-school altogether, and devote all of my time again to work.” Booker had to work because his family was poor after being emancipated.

Staying with the theme of education, both Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington had very different views on education and how important it was for the success of a person. They both valued education in their early lives, but as they aged, they had different thoughts on education. Malcolm X was educated through middle school, but was occasionally unhappy at how the teachers assumed that he didn’t want to continue education and that he would just end up dropping out and working a bad job. Malcolm X never ended up going to college and he never sought it, saying: “I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students.” Malcolm X found that reading books was a much better use of his time and he thought that reading was a better way to help black people than going to college. Malcolm X went as far as saying that he was glad that he went to prison over going to college. He thought that he was more able to focus in prison than at college because a college has too many distractions. Booker T. Washington had a very opposite view on school. Throughout his life, Booker wanted to get as much education from institutions as possible. When Booker was later in his life, he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. This school focused on teaching black people trades like farming so they could be more useful in society. Booker T. Washington thought that it was extremely important for black people to get education, and this makes sense because he was successful from his education.

Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington also had disagreements on the role that white people should play for the success of African Americans. Malcolm X thought that the white man should have a very limited or no role in black success. He probably got these ideas from his reading in prison. The readings that he did in prison “opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider, to how the whole world’s white men had indeed acted like devils.” He also noticed that the white men had been the major exploiters throughout history and he came to the conclusion that whites were bad Christians. Malcolm X noticed that black people were able to make good civilizations in Africa. All of this likely led to him thinking that the African Americans would have the most societal success if they worked among themselves to rise up. Booker T. Washington thought that white people had a pivotal role in raising black people up. During his Atlanta Exposition Address, Booker’s main goal was uniting black and white people “the thing that was uppermost in my mind was the desire to say something that would cement the friendship of the races and being about hearty coöperation between them.” Booker also talked about how the blacks and whites could be separate as the fingers but they had to connect all to the same hand. This shows how Booker was keen on the whites being part of the overall system to lift the black people up.

Lastly, Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X disagreed on the role of black intellectuals. While Malcolm X was in prison, he read works from German philosophers. The ideas from these philosophers later influenced the Nazi and Fascist philosophy. Malcolm X noticed that “it seems to me that most of their time was spent arguing about things that are not really important.” Malcolm X noticed similarities in the way that the German philosophers argued and the way that black intellectuals acted “They remind me of so many of the Negro “intellectuals,” so-called, with whom I have come in contact—they are always arguing about something useless.” I find it very interesting that Malcolm X is directly comparing the black intellectuals to the founders of Fascism and Nazism, and I think this shows just how much Malcolm X disliked the tactics of the black intellectuals. Malcolm X would have likely characterized Booker T. Washington as one of the black intellectuals. Booker T. Washington would have likely argued that people like him were crucial for advancing black society by introducing new ideas to the black community. Overall the two disagreed on almost everything that had to do with the advancement of black people. It is important to note though that they were around at very different times so both of their ideas were revolutionary when they came out.