Claiming Exodus: A Cultural History of Afro-Atlantic Identity, 1774-1903

Afterword: The First Joshua Generation, Stranded on the Border of Canaan (1895–1903)

143 AFTERWoRD The First Joshua Generation Stranded on the Border of Canaan (1895–1903) Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. —Joshua 1:1-2 The metropolitan press of the great city of New York, unanimously declared that Mr. Douglass was a fit example for all classes and conditions of people, be they black or white. Marvelous declaration! . . . As Israel, we mourn the loss of our Moses. God took him. —Tribute by Rev. William B. Derrick, D.D., of the A.M.E., of New York To me, [Booker T. Washington] seems one of the greatest of living men because his work is unique: the modern Moses, who leads his race and lifts it through education to even better and higher things than a land overflowing with milk and honey. —Andrew Carnegie, “To Tuskegee, $600,000: Mr. Carnegie’s Gift,” New York Tribune So far as Mr. Washington preaches Thrift, Patience, and Industrial Training for the masses, we must hold up his hands and strive with him, rejoicing in his honors and glorying in the strength of this Joshua called of God and of man to lead the headless host. —W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk 144 CLAIMING ExoDUS Frederick Douglass’ death in 1895 precipitated a leadership crisis in the African American community. Approximately one year earlier, on the fiftieth anniversary of the day he was sold as a slave inTalbot County, Maryland, Douglass had penned a letter to his friend the Reverend Grimké. Reflecting on the dramatic changes that had occurred over his lifetime, Douglass mused, “I cannot believe that the Almighty power that has brought us so near the promised land will now abandon us.”1 Although Douglass lived to see slavery ended, he still envisioned African Americans languishing in a wilderness experience after witnessing the failure of Reconstruction. Many writers and activists affirmed Douglass’ view of race progress by eulogizing him as African Americans’ Moses, thereby establishing the expectation that a Joshua figure would soon be anointed to facilitate their entry into and conquest of their American Canaan.2 As African American authors began to advance their ideas regarding the type of leader they believed was essential for race advancement, three potential candidates emerged. In the months immediately following Douglass’ death, W.E.B. Du Bois earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University, Booker T. Washington delivered what would become known as his “Atlanta Compromise Speech” at the Cotton States and International Exposition, and Ida B. Wells published A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892–1894. Their disparate methodologies for racial uplift—the Talented Tenth, industrial education, and public campaign, respectively— led to unresolvable conflicts in the twentieth century, creating rifts within the early Civil Rights Movement that would linger for decades. The escalation in lynchings and proliferation of federal rulings that legalized racism affirmed African Americans’ need for new leadership to unify the community in responding to challenges that continued to undermine their achievements. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, nearly one hundred African Americans were reported lynched each year. The US Supreme Court further exacerbated race relations through its affirmation of a “separate but equal” doctrine for public transportation in Plessy v. Ferguson, its linkage of literacy and jury selection to suffrage in Williams v. Mississippi, and its preservation of white Americans’ right to operate segregated schools without providing educational opportunities for African American students in Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education. The high court’s disregard for African Americans’ rights encouraged a “Judge Lynch” approach to justice, as race riots erupted in local communities such as Greenwood County, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 and New orleans and New York City in 1900. AFTERWoRD 145 Despite these setbacks, African American activists and their constituents continued to seek innovative means to advance the cause of social justice. Black women took increasingly prominent roles in civic matters through the establishment of national organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women in 1896. African Americans also tended to the needs of specialized...