The Business Strategy of Booker T. Washington: Its Development and Implementation

3. The Entrepreneurial Ideas of Booker T. Washington

3 The Entrepreneurial Ideas of BookerT.Washington As noted earlier, most of the studies done on Booker T. Washington have concentrated exclusively on his views concerning industrial education or his supposedly accommodationist leadership stance, either supporting or opposing Du Bois’ famous critique. These studies, however, do not even begin to fully explain another core aspect of Washington’s leadership strategy—his entrepreneurial philosophy, a plan he had developed by  that emphasized duties rather than rights. Most importantly, Washington’s entrepreneurial philosophy has not been analyzed deeply from a business perspective. The aim of this chapter is to concretely present Booker T. Washington’s entrepreneurial ideas by reconstructing their components from many of his speeches and writings and then explicating them. In addition, a summary and analysis effectively evaluate Washington’s entrepreneurial philosophy. Unlike many of the business leaders of Washington’s era, the individual was never central to his entrepreneurial philosophy. As noted in chapter , “the group was primary.” Although Washington never totally promoted the capitalist tenet of individualism, ideologies like the Protestant work ethic and social Darwinism greatly influenced him; he advocated individual development and racial solidarity and lauded captains of industry—successful individuals who would not only serve as role models, but would actively show others how to succeed. This mix of concepts characterized Washington ’s entire public life. He promoted individual successes, but once individuals became successful, he urged them to reach back and help others, because group progression was more meaningful for the advancement of his race and, ultimately, their happiness. Washington, as a national leader, considered his business philosophy an operational, viable strategy. He passionately and consistently espoused it before African Americans throughout his public career. At its core, it was nothing more than a multitude of values, beliefs, and practices that, taken 58 The Business Strategy of BookerT.Washington collectively, equaled his entrepreneurial philosophy—a plan for making a significant number of African Americans into producers instead of just consumers. Washington’s entrepreneurial philosophy called for two things: adopting characteristics that were ingredients for success and boldly pioneering them. This becomes evident upon analyzing the basic components of Washington’s entrepreneurial philosophy—his self-help plan for African Americans during and after the nadir. Components ofWashington’s Entrepreneurial Philosophy A controversial aspect of Washington’s educational philosophy was his emphasis on industrial education.1 Scholars have debated this issue extensively and because of that their arguments need not be reiterated here.2 Nevertheless , industrial education played a significant role in Washington’s entrepreneurial philosophy. At Tuskegee Institute, trades were taught along with academic course work.3 Washington insisted that his faculty, especially the faculty in the Academic Department, teach their courses via the correlative method,4 a pedagogical method that related course work to praxis.5 Washington felt that the implementation of this methodology would assure that his students, upon leaving school, would be able to return to their respective communities and preferably create or at least successfully obtain employment (often as teachers), thereby making themselves productive, valuable citizens. Washington stated that he was not against higher education but believed that African Americans in the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras generally needed more than academic education,6 especially since they had no foothold in the business world. He believed that they needed mental development that was tied to hand (trade) and heart (moral) training. Industrial education was an example of this for Washington. It gave an individual a skill to start a business, which he felt could ultimately help improve race relations. “Nothing else so soon brings about right relations between the two races in the South,” Washington wrote, “as the commercial progress of the Negro.”7 He further felt that friction between the two races would pass away as soon as African Americans got something that whites wanted, “something that makes the white man partly dependent upon the Negro instead of all the dependence being on the other side.”8 In doing this, Washington argued that both groups would grow to exist on equal grounds, engaging in reciprocal relationships. The Entrepreneurial Ideas 59 From a business perspective, Washington saw African Americans at a lower stage of development than Anglo-Americans.9 He attributed this phenomenon to the experience of slavery. Making no excuses for this condition, Washington recommended and promoted industrial education for African Americans coupled with the correlative method of teaching as an uplift strategy . Provided this, Washington felt...