Booker T. Washington's Plan

Booker T. Washington’s stand on the problem of what would happen to blacks in the south, after the civil war, was one that whites looked on more favorably then the newly freed slaves. Washington did not want to do anything. His plan was to have the freed slaves return to the work they’d already been doing all their lives, but for pay. While this may seem like a decent idea, because the whites were in no shape to look after everything they had slaves for, and they would already know the trade very well, this would only keep them at the lowly level they were fighting to rise from.

He had the right idea about blacks not leaving the south, because that would give the southerners what they wanted. An all white community where they weren’t disturbed by the blacks. Earning respect and climbing the social ladder would be difficult if things basically just went back to how they were before the slaves were freed. Booker T. Washington’s plan was to do nothing. The south needed some change with the end of the Civil war, and Booker T. Washington would not have brought it.