The saying goes, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” According to Chapter 10, this saying is attributed to Booker T. Washington, who exemplified how Black Americans kept hope alive in the decades between 1885 and 1915, sometimes described as the lowest moment, or nadir, in African American history.
Racism and discrimination, the struggle for economic independence, harsh segregation laws and Jim Crow practices kept Blacks in subservient positions and at the bottom of every hierarchy in American politics, law, and society.
But many Blacks and the institutions they built avoided these traps, subverted these realities, and surmounted these obstacles. Turning inward, freedom’s first generation intensified their emphasis on racial solidarity, self-help, and economic nationalism.
In what ways did African Americans reject white supremacy and attempt to create their own communities of support and solidarity? (Please be very specific in your analysis of the late 1800s – early 1900s.) Has this changed any in recent years? How do African Americans today bond and work together to help and provide assistance to each other? Or, do they? Do you think that African Americans will do more “lifting each other up” in the future? Why? How?
