AFAM 162: African American History: From Emancipation to the Present with Prof. Jonathan Holloway

Lecture 6 - Uplift, Accommodation, and Assimilation (continued) [January 27, 2010]

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Overview:

In this lecture, Professor Holloway explains the two major schools of thought that emerged at the end of the century to solve the problems of black social and economic distress. The accommodationists, like Booker T. Washington, believed that the quickest way to improve the quality of black life was to forge a social peace with powerful whites, temporarily accepting the continued separation of the races and advocating vocational education as a pragmatic way for blacks to improve their lives. Opposed to Washington were people like Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. Du Bois who embraced assimilation and saw higher education as the cure-all to racialized problems. Du Bois, in particular, is famous for his assertion that it would be the "Talented Tenth" of the race who would lead blacks to a better life.

Warning: This lecture contains graphic content and/or adult language that some users may find disturbing.

Reading assignment:

Film: Ethnic Notions

Marable, Let Nobody Turn Us Around, pp. 150-216

Brown, “Womanist Consciousness”

Resources:

Credit List [PDF]