What is the key to racial reconciliation in our nation? Dr. Carol Swain joins Michael Knowles on this month’s episode of The Book Club to examine the life of Booker T. Washington, a former slave turned educator, as seen through the lens of his autobiography Up From Slavery.
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery and after emancipation became the Black leader of his era. He was celebrated in his life time but has since been marginalized by academia and popular culture and has been denounced as an accommodationist. During his era and up through the 1950's we actually did have systemic racism says Dr. Swain. Now however, the problems of the Black community are mostly self imposed. "You can't blame slavery for the disfunction you see in Black communities," points out Carol Swain. The message of Booker T. Washington is still relevant for Whites and Blacks.
Dr. Swain was born into poverty as one of twelve children and was raised in a shack without running water. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee and has served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She received a B.A. from Roanoke College, M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic & State University, Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and M.S.L. from Yale. She is an award-winning political scientist, a former professor of political science and professor of law at Vanderbilt University. For more on Carol Swain, follow this link.
To watch the video follow this link.
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