We Texans have a strong tradition of appreciating our freedom and independence, and as an African American—a descendant of former slaves—the principles may have deeper meanings to me and those like me than those who have never had to live in a segregated society with limitations to where you can go and what you could do.
Let me give you a good illustration of what I mean. Our text books may tell the history of two Black Americas who became prominent leaders at the end of the 19th century and into the latter half of the 20th—W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. Both were deeply concerned about the plight and the progress of blacks in America after Emancipation, and spent their lives seeking the improvement of the condition of black people. Both men are seen as great men, but there are questionable issues concerning the way the writers of history actually portray them. There are notable omissions about the lives of both men, which should cause suspicion and concern about the purpose and intentions of the writers.
Generally speaking, Mr. DuBois has always been portrayed as the great civil rights hero, and Mr. Washington a regionalized second-tier activist and generalized Uncle Tom. However, when one discovers the truth concerning certain key facts about these men, the most natural course of action should be to seek to find out “Why?”
It is most likely that those who fight and struggle to have certain textbooks selected and placed into our system understand the importance of history, and want to be certain that a certain perspective or ideology is taught. Sometimes truth is irrelevant because the idea becomes more important than the actual facts!
If our textbooks are to teach about W.E.B. DuBois, they must tell the entire story, not just partial generalities highlighting his “good points.” Certainly he was a leader in the black community, he fought for equal rights even through the court system, but none of the textbooks mention that W.E.B. Dubois believed that the system of communism was the best hope for America. Mr. DuBois praised Adolf Hitler and the social order of NAZI-ism. He was a devoted disciple of Chairman Mao of China and wrote favorably about how their educational system. In addition, DuBois even praised Joseph Stalin in spite of his brutality. To DuBois, the control of large populations was an attractive element in foreign lands that needed to be implemented in America. His admirers do not mention that he was a member of the Communist Party U.S.A. Neither do they include in their textbook biographies that he allegedly renounced his U.S. citizenship and became a citizen of the communist-ruled nation of Ghana.
Mr. Dubois was an evolutionist, who believed black improvement meant “breeding upwards.” He was one of Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger’s chief advisors on how to introduce population control into the African American community, and is attributed with the comment about the black population within the United States as “quantity, but not quality.” He sought to create a class of elite blacks he called the “Talented Tenth,” who would lead the black population because the average black person was intellectually incapable of leading themselves. The average citizen is unaware of these few facts about Dubois because today’s writers of history exclude such information. Should we know the full story of his life’s work?
On the other hand, the work of Booker T. Washington is consistently downplayed and under-reported. For example, most people know that he founded Tuskegee University. Mr. Washington believed in the education of black America and the establishment of a strong infrastructure within the black communities throughout the nation. On a personal note, Eula Johnson, my own grandmother (who died before I was born) was sent from the small farming community of Brazoria, Texas to Tuskegee to learn to be a seamstress some time before 1913.
He appealed to philanthropists like Julius Rosenwald of the Sears and Roebuck fortune. Mr. Rosenwald teamed up with Washington to create an extensive system of community-based public schools in the early 1900’s known as the Rosenwald Schools. With such financial contributions, nearly five thousand of these schools were built throughout the south and parts of the north. In Texas, these schools were also built. In West Columbia, one such building was located and restored. Mr. Washington was a devout Christian and believed that Biblical teaching was just as important as math and science. A requirement of each Tuskegee student was to attend regular church services and meetings on the campus.
So the way textbook authors depict history should always provoke the reader to understand their intention and purpose. It is obvious that each of these men saw things differently. It can be said that Dubois was a liberal, and Washington was a conservative. Dubois is more popular today because he is a hero of the left, who has controlled much of our media as well as public education system. For the same reason, Washington has been all but written out of history. However, I propose that in Texas, the work of Booker T. Washington has had a far greater impact upon its citizens than the Marxist ideology of W.E.B. Dubois.
So the matter before us as Texans today is textbook selection, which symbolizes our future investment: what type of citizens will we produce in the years to come? The content of these books will affect how future generations view our state and nation.
So if the Texas State Board of Education wants to include certain historical figures in the textbooks, first make sure that the entire history of their work and efforts are included. Let their ideologies be known and examined by the students. The objective of Dubois and the liberal left has been to change America into a system that is strange, alien and hostile to true freedom, while the goal of Booker T. Washington and the Christian conservative has been to make it better for all.
