Up From Slavery chronicles the life of Booker T. Washington from his days as a child slave during American Civil War to his journey though self-education and towards his growth as a prominent African American leader. This book became a best seller upon its publication in 1905 and impressed Theodore Roosevelt so much that he invited Washington to dine at White House. "I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time. As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and the slave quarters—the latter being the part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins. My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings." Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. He was also a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League.

The University of Illinois Press offers online access to "The Booker T. Washington Papers," a 14-volume set published by the press. Users can search the papers, view images, and purchase the print version of the volumes. Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) was an African-American educator who was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia.

Examines the life and times of the educational leader and founder of the Tuskegee Institute, who became a leading spokesman for the African American community.

Rempson takes issue with those who lay the plight of African Americans on racism, not seeing it, today, as a major obstacle to black progress. Rather, he traces the origin back to what he terms the African American Garden of Eden. In it, W. E. B. Dubois outlasted Booker T. Washington and fathered a tradition which Rempson argues has produced a victim identity and an emphasis on the system rather than the self. Only black males offer a way out, he declares, because it is entirely “our black males who are keeping us down and curtailing our progress,” in contrast to black females, who “are doing OK.” They are plagued by what Rempson calls the African American Male School Adaptability Crisis (AMSAC). Their academic performance ranks at the bottom, alone, below black female students and below white, Asian, and Hispanic male students. In large urban areas, their high school dropout rate is 59 percent and, nationally, they lag behind in college attendance and graduation rates. The outcome, Rempson argues, is dysfunctionality and the existence of hedonistic norms which hinder family and community stability. But while black males are the problem, Rempson contends, it is nevertheless only they who can solve it because research and experience show that it takes males to bring up and change other males. Though intended for everyone, he therefore writes his book to his fellow advantaged black males and makes a passionate plea for them to step up and, with the help of black females and of the nation, take the lead. As their guide, he has formulated eight propositions. Arrived at through an examination of impressively extensive data from numerous sources and disciplines, they are a marked departure from the customary. Most strikingly, delicate matters, such as those which pertain to intelligence quotient (IQ) and culture, are openly confronted and dealt with. But, Rempson writes, “unless confronted, we will not solve our problems.” “Nor,” he continues, “can we solve them unless we cut the umbilical cord to white America. We have no right to expect it to be our savior; nor are we justified in perceiving it as our oppressor.” Forcefully and finely written, Rempson’s book is a singular and courageous contribution. Alone, his eight propositions make it a worthy read.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States was faced with a new and radically mixed population, one that included freed African Americans, former reservation Indians, and a burgeoning immigrant population. In The Autobiography of Citizenship, Tova Cooper looks at how educators tried to impose unity on this divergent population, and how the new citizens in turn often resisted these efforts, reshaping mainstream U.S. culture and embracing their own view of what it means to be an American. The Autobiography of Citizenship traces how citizenship education programs began popping up all over the country, influenced by the progressive approach to hands-on learning popularized by John Dewey and his followers. Cooper offers an insightful account of these programs, enlivened with compelling readings of archival materials such as photos of students in the process of learning; autobiographical writing by both teachers and new citizens; and memoirs, photos, poems, and novels by authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Jane Addams, Charles Reznikoff, and Emma Goldman. Indeed, Cooper provides the first comparative, inside look at these citizenship programs, revealing that they varied wildly: at one end, assimilationist boarding schools required American Indian children to transform their dress, language, and beliefs, while at the other end the libertarian Modern School encouraged immigrant children to frolic naked in the countryside and learn about the world by walking, hiking, and following their whims. Here then is an engaging portrait of what it was like to be, and become, a U.S. citizen one hundred years ago, showing that what it means to be “American” is never static.

The Norton Critical Edition of this influential Harlem Renaissance novel includes related materials available in no other edition. Known only as the “Ex-Colored Man,” the protagonist in Johnson’s novel is forced to choose between celebrating his African American heritage or “passing” as an average white man in a post-Reconstruction America that is rapidly changing. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1912 text. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a note on the text. The appendices that follow the novel include materials available in no other edition: manuscript drafts of the final chapters, including the original lynching scene (chapter 10, ca. 1910) and the original ending (chapter 11, ca. 1908). An unusually rich selection of “Backgrounds and Sources” focuses on Johnson’s life; the autobiographical inspirations for The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; the cultural history of the era in which Johnson lived and wrote; the noteworthy reception history for the 1912, 1927, and 1948 editions; and related writings by Johnson. In addition to Johnson, contributors include Eugene Levy, W. E. B. Du Bois, Carl Van Vechten, Blanche W. Knopf, and Victor Weybright among others. The four critical essays and interpretations in this volume speak to The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man’s major themes, among them irony, authorship, passing, and parody. Assessments are provided by Robert B. Stepto, M. Giulia Fabi, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Christina L. Ruotolo. A chronology of Johnson’s life and work and a selected bibliography are also included, as well as six images.

This pioneering study of Afro-American narrative is far more critical, historical, and textual than biographical, chronological, and atextual. Robert Stepto asserts that Afro-American culture has its store of canonical stories or pregeneric myths, the primary one being the quest for freedom and literacy. This second edition includes a new preface and an afterward entitled "Distrust of the Reader in Afro-American Narratives."

Historians overwhelmingly have blamed the demise of Reconstruction on Southerners' persistent racism. Heather Cox Richardson argues instead that class, along with race, was critical to Reconstruction's end. Northern support for freed blacks and Reconstruction weakened in the wake of growing critiques of the economy and calls for a redistribution of wealth. Using newspapers, public speeches, popular tracts, Congressional reports, and private correspondence, Richardson traces the changing Northern attitudes toward African-Americans from the Republicans' idealized image of black workers in 1861 through the 1901 publication of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery. She examines such issues as black suffrage, disenfranchisement, taxation, westward migration, lynching, and civil rights to detect the trajectory of Northern disenchantment with Reconstruction. She reveals a growing backlash from Northerners against those who believed that inequalities should be addressed through working-class action, and the emergence of an American middle class that championed individual productivity and saw African-Americans as a threat to their prosperity. The Death of Reconstruction offers a new perspective on American race and labor and demonstrates the importance of class in the post-Civil War struggle to integrate African-Americans into a progressive and prospering nation.

First published in 2002. The Art of The Possible is a new study of the ideas and achievements of Booker T. Washington, the most influential African American leader of the period 1881-1915. Washington's program for racial uplift is assessed in the context of the key political, social and economic developments of his era, in a work which both incorporates original research and a systhesis of modern scholarship.