Notes for Class/Canvas

2. Carter G. Woodson
"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to
worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not
to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper
place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to
the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if
there is no back door, he will cut one for his special
benefit. His education makes it necessary."

3. • Black educator and scholar, born in 1875 and
died in 1950. Dean of Liberal Arts at Howard.
Founding member of NAACP. Founded Black
History Week.
• In 1903 went to the Philippines to help
establish a new school system. He helped
administer the colonial education curriculum
that was written and designed by white
Americans. Filipinos were taught completely
outside their experience, making Filipino’s
“alien” to themselves. At the same time
Filipinos were taught to elevate USA values
over their own.
• Woodson’s experience in the Philippines
helped him craft his ideas about the
education of Black folks in the continental
United States. This led to the publication of
his books about the education of the
American Negro.

4. Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du Bois
Instead of taking sides
between the classic
argument between
Booker T. Washington
and W.E.B. Du Bois,
Carter G. Woodson
argued that neither side
of the argument would
suffice as a response to
inequality of outcomes
between Black and
White folk.

5. Booker T. Washington, educator, reformer and the most
influential black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a
philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation.
He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being
and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work
and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts,
industrial and farming skills and the cultivation of the virtues
of patience, enterprise and thrift. This, he said, would win the
respect of whites and lead to African Americans being fully
accepted as citizens and integrated into all strata of society.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html

6. W.E.B. Du Bois, a towering black intellectual, scholar and political
thinker (1868-1963) said no--Washington's strategy would serve only
to perpetuate white oppression. Du Bois advocated political action and
a civil rights agenda (he helped found the NAACP). In addition, he
argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the
small group of college-educated blacks he called "the Talented
Tenth:” "The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its
exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Negroes,
must first of all deal with the "Talented Tenth." It is the problem of
developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away
from the contamination and death of the worst."
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html