Booker T. Washington's body of work, study, and his life as a whole,
             as most notably encompassed within the text his own autobiography,
             entitled, Up From Slavery, is often set against the live of W.E.B. Du Bois.
             As noted by the scholar Louis T. Harlan, conventional wisdom holds that
             Booker T. Washington advocated a fairly conservative point of view,
             regarding the place of African-Americans in American society, in contrast
             to Du Bois's advocacy of immediate political as well as economic equality
             for the races of America. Booker T. Washington's ethos of putting down
             one's bucket' where one stood, as an African American, is seen as
             fundamentally conciliatory to white society, rather than offering a
             potentially liberating point of view to America's community of oppressed
             African Americans. Blacks under the tyranny of Jim Crow's de facto
             segregation, or even the de jure educational and economic segregation of
             the North, were hungry not simply for economic advancement, but for
             political and spiritual justice. By over-focusing on economics, as opposed
             to integrated education and justice and intellectual advancement,
             Washington is said to have sold himself short, as well as his people.
             (Historians in their understanding of Washington's life quite deliberately
             However, Washington was a far more complex individual than this
             initial gloss might allow. Louis Harlan's introduction to Washington's
             life is particular important not simply because Harlan offers a
             comprehensive reading of an important figure in American history and
             African American history. Harlan is the author of a biography of
             Washington, and his reading of Washington's life is important for the
             redemptive reading he offers of a figure so frequently misread by history
             and even by African Americans today, intent upon finding a scapegoat for
             the lack of advancement for individuals within the community during the
             f...