The Daily Signal - Booker T. Washington: A Legacy of Enterprise and Education

Episode Date: February 24, 2020

Author and educator Booker T. Washington played a critical role in the promotion of education and free market enterprise among black Americans at the turn of the century. Alabama businessman and political consultant Richard Finley joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss what the legacy of Washington, who died in 1915, means to him and others in the African American community. Link to Booker T. Washington's 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And I'm Virginia Allen. Today is the fourth and final episode of our Black History Month series. We'll hear from Richard Finley, who tells the inspiring story of Booker T. Washington. We also have your letters to the editor and a good news story about a FedEx driver and what he did when he found an American flag on the ground. Before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about the most reliable source for global economic data. Heritage's Index of Economic Freedom. Each year, the Heritage Foundation ranks nearly every nation in the world according to its

economic freedom. Whether for personal or professional research, the Index of Economic Freedom is a great source of information. You might be surprised where the United States ranks. Visit heritage.org slash index to explore interactive maps, country rankings, graphs of data, and much, much more. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Richard Finley, who's head of the Finley Group, a business and political consulting firm in Birmingham, Alabama. Richard, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

You are somebody who's served on the Republican Party State Executive Committee there in Alabama and very much have lived through the civil rights movement and history and you've seen it before your own eyes. And throughout the month of February, Black History Month, we're featuring some of the stories of American heroes. Maybe some of those who are listeners can learn a little bit more about. So we appreciate you taking the time to share with us about Booker T. Washington specifically and some of your own experiences. I appreciate the opportunity. I just feel that Washington was probably the most significant black figure in American history.

And I know that's arguable. But the things that he was able to do at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, and the economic strategy he had for lifting up a people out of slavery was extremely significant and extremely valuable. And I dislike the fact that it is being downplayed in modern public schools telling of black history. you know, when I initially decided to become politically active in Birmingham, I went to the established black leadership,

and I told them, I said, well, you know, I am going to become politically active, and I'm going to become politically active as a Republican. And I explained to them that when I was in high school and college here, as a young man being an activist. You know, our fight was with the Yellow Dog Democrats of Alabama and the South. And I didn't quite understand returning to Birmingham and finding all of the black leadership now in bed with the Yellow Dog Democrats, who were the oppressors.

Democrats controlled Alabama from Reconstruction up through the 1970s. So they had a long run in all of the segregation efforts, the laws that were put in place to segregate and oppress, you know, the black citizens were put in place by the Yellow Dog Democrats of Alabama. And I didn't quite understand why our leadership had chosen to get in bed with these people. But I said that, you know, if you're going to be politically active, then you have to have options. If you don't have an option, then you really don't matter in the overall equation. They can write you in and then go pursue those folk who might be exercising their options. And I felt that black people needed to hear both sides of the story. They needed to be able to get the information and then make a conscious decision as to which way they wanted to go,

rather than being locked into the party of the same people who had been oppressing us for the three or four hundred years leading up to the Civil War. Well, thank you for sharing that. I mean, we appreciate your leadership and speaking out. I think it's so critically important that people do have an open mind and understand history. Because I think too often, as you've indicated to me, sometimes we only look at the recent history and not necessarily look back at the figures who had a transformative impact on our country. And Booker T. Washington is certainly one of them. He was born in 1856, died in 1915. He was obviously an educator.

You mentioned his role at Tuskegee University. He was a leading Republican at the time. He was somebody who was among that last generation of black Americans who were born into slavery and then became a leading voice. So tell us more about him and why you consider him to be such a profound figure in American history and an influence on your own life? I was conscious of him all through elementary school when we were taught black history as part of the Jefferson County, Alabama, colored school system. And in the colored school, we had all black teachers who had a sensitivity or a consciousness to making sure that young black kids understood the contributions that we as a people have made to America.

and my two heroes were Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and I tell folk that I believed, as Frederick Douglass did in free people, and as Booker T. Washington did in free enterprise. So free people in free enterprise was sort of my driving motto. But Washington had a unique plan and strategy for lifting newly freed Africans, who had been purposely blocked from learning to re-exempting. or being taught the way the system worked in this country. And ignorance was being brutally enforced upon Africans who were in slavery.

And once they were free, you know, Washington had sort of a manifesto of, you know, here are the things that you need to first do in order to lift yourself up out of the poverty that you were left in. You know, in 1866, they said you're free. but there was no budget with that. And so, you know, newly freed Africans had a major challenge. But having lived in such close quarters, just through observation, they understood how the system worked. And Booker T. Washington and his team at Tuskegee Institute,

you know, working with some northern philanthropists, started to establish schools so that the newly freed Africans could immediately begin to learn to read. And I think if you check the history in that period between 1866 and say 1930, you know, illiteracy was reduced within the black community, you know, pretty close to 60, 65%. So it was a major achievement. and establishing a school network, and there was an eagerness or hunger from the newly freed Africans to learn to read and write the language.

From being in proximity with the plantation owners and how they operated the business, they had picked up pretty much how the system was working. And if you looked during that period, that there was substantial economic gain made within the African or black community. They rapidly acquired what ultimately wound up being at the height about 15 million acres of land went into various business pursuits. And Tuskegee was sort of the training ground or the breeding ground for this entrepreneurial effort.

at Tuskegee Institute. You know, if you read the stories, they talk about how they took straw and made bricks and built the buildings on the campus at Tuskegee Institute. Well, not only were they making bricks and masonry products, they were doing lumber, and they became one of the largest, if not the largest, supplier of building materials in the South. And with that business acumen, Dr. Washington then set about on a plan that was to be called the Tuskegee Industrial Complex. He established organizations all over the country under the title of the National Negro Business League. He had in his employ at Tuskegee Institute, Dr. George Washington Carver and several other botanists and chemists and scientists who were,

putting together a lot of the products that we use today. And it was his plan to turn Tuskegee into an industrial complex to create these various common need products, the deodorants, the soaps, the hair creams, the, all of these things were things that were being made from plants in Dr. Carver's laboratory. So Washington's plan was to begin to manufacture all of these products there at Tuskegee and distribute them across the country through the National Negro Business League. He also, as I said earlier, had the capability for the building materials and so forth. He was building out of this industrial complex concept,

what would today be a multi-billion dollar American corporation. A lot of the stuff that Procter and Gamow was, doing, a lot of the stuff that Kellogg was doing and Rockefeller and Firestone. All of these industrial giants were constant visitors at Tuskegee and with Dr. Carver. To this day, some of their institutions still contribute to Tuskegee's well-being. But they also became very wealthy corporations off of the formulas that Dr. Carver had put together. Dr. Carver was the first to create synthetic nylon that was crucial to the American War effort when they started developing automobile tires on the firestone was the beneficiary of what they were doing at Tuskegee in terms of

creating rubber and synthetic nylon from the products that Carver was growing there on the Tuskegee properties. It's really fascinating to hear you share those examples. Clearly, Booker T. Washington had a passion not only to educate, but also an entrepreneurial spirit as well, as you indicated there. And you shared with me, we were at an event together in Washington, D.C. in February, was put on by Black Americans for a better future. And you shared with me, Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition speech. And it's really fascinating and the impact that it had. And I wanted you to share a bit about that particular address and how it really set course in motion some of the impact. of the things that he was able to accomplish?

It was a plan, a roadmap, if you will, that was put before the American fight community, the business community. Now, the left wing or the socialist elements of the time headed up by W.B. the boys labeled it a compromise speech. And I just assumed that they didn't understand what Washington was putting forward, but he was putting forward a plan for economic growth and development here in the South. and Southern white businessmen were, okay, if we are allowed uninterrupted to acquire land, to farm that land, to build our churches, our schools, and our homes, and in fact, on that property, uninterrupted by whatever government the South was putting in place at the time, then we as newly freed, Africans. We as newly free participants in the American economy would want to establish basically a

parallel relationship or a parallel economy where we would bring our excess produce to the market. And we would live as neighbors, all being America's, you know, Washington was a nationalist. He believed in America. He believed in the American concept. And he wanted the new freed Africans to be able to establish a parallel system as well as a parallel economy. And he said to the assembled people, anything social, that's your preference. We can be as separate as the fingers on the hand. But should we be attacked by an outside aggressor, then be assured that we as citizens of the country will come together with you to defend America against any enemy foreign or domestic. And he made that statement to the established audience there.

But then he went on to talk about our sojourn up to that point here in America. And the challenges that we were facing now as free American citizens. If you remember doing that time frame, the great American railroad experiment was beginning. And the Chinese were the immigrants of the day. And they were taking jobs that the newly freed Africans were applying for or wanting to do. And Washington addressed that position in his speech as well, the immigration problem. And again, it went on to assure them that, hey, we've been here living in close proximity for three or four hundred years. You know, we've never, to any real extent, had a major uprising. We've been in situations where you've got two or three hundred slaves on the plantation

with maybe 10, 12 white people on the plantation. So if there was any ill intent, it would have shown itself a long time ago. So he was saying that you could be comfortable with the black citizens. All we wanted was an opportunity to be productive and to generate an own property of our own to be able to educate our children, to be able to establish and conduct our church and religious life as free citizens here in America. And again, as a parallel to what was existing within the white communities at that time. Certainly.

It was the first presentation of separate and equal. And it was, I think, well, you can read the other stuff that was in there, but it was the first actual deal or arrangement put on this. table for blacks and whites to coexist in America. And we will make sure that we link to it for our listeners or our readers on the Daily Signal so they can see. Richard, one final question for you. You spoke about the importance of educating today's Americans and young people about our history.

What are some steps that you're taking or what advice do you have for our listeners who want to do a better job of making sure that young people understand those American heroes who came before us. Well, you know, the thing that's most personal to me now is to, at my age, to have time to sit down and talk with young people. I think we need to encourage the storytelling. And especially within the black community, we are losing generations to poor public education. And now with the advent of social media and the electronic communications, they're getting stories. They're getting stories. that are coming at them so fast that they don't have time to put them in perspective and to understand what it is that they're getting and all this information that's flowing.

So if we can, encourage generational conversations. I'm 70 years old, so I'm at the point where, as I told my children, I said, I was there when the colored sign came down, and I'm not sure sure it was the best thing to do for us. That's it. We had at that time operating in Alabama, five nationally established black insurance companies that were employing thousands of black people across the country. We had three banks here in Birmingham. We had a community that consisted of doctors and dentists and all of the various medical capabilities. We had a black established and run hospital within our community. We had the pharmacists in our community. All these businesses were. were going. And when Martin Luther King arrived in Birmingham, you know, he had to have a serious conversation with A.G. G. Asin, who at that time was one of the leading black businessmen in the country. But he was stationed here in Birmingham and owned major buildings and property in what is now downtown Birmingham proper. And he cautioned King and his followers that they need to give serious thought

to what would happen after the colored sign came down and how would we be positioned financially or economically to compete in the broader market with the much more financially established white entities in the downtown area. So we had a lot of questions that were going on that don't get told in the stories of history today. It was a significant debate about the economic cost of integration to the black community. And people need to understand that there was not a whole lot of problem with the concept of separate and equal. The problem was we never could get the equal worked out. That's right. And the public tax revenue didn't come into our community. But we had successful black businesses going on. We had successful black churches. Black contractors were

building houses. We had what by most standards would be a pretty comfortable working class or middle class existence in Birmingham. And that was lost once the colored sign came down. And we have not been able to reestablish. I hear black businesses crying a lot, well, we don't have capital to do this, that, and the other. I'm saying, I'm old enough to remember when we had all of these things and whatever capital was needed, we were able to put it together to do what needed to be done. So that understanding that history and what we built and how we built it, the drop in the link of communications has interrupted our ability to build on those successes, the Johnson publishing companies, the 300 black-on radio stations, the 15 million

acres of land, all of that is lost. And I feel that because of the misdirection of the public education system and the breakdown and the family communications within our community have cost us tremendously. And that history, that story needs to be told when I talk to you about T.M. Alexander, you know, the Rosa Parks story is a great human interest story. But this was a, the Montgomery Boycott was an organized, you know, quasi-business entity that was going on here. And the people didn't stop going to work. They just stopped riding the bus. So in creating a car pool to be able to deliver these people to their jobs,

they needed to have a blanket insurance. So we had a millionaire, black insurance executive, an insurance company owner out of Atlanta, who stepped up and provided a $2 million blanket policy to cover the bus boycott. Now, you know, Rosa courage is not to be diminished, but there was a business end to this. And, you know, the black conservative businessmen who, for the most part, were all Republicans, provided the financial strength necessary. They did this up until the point that the movement itself became integrated,

and groups with other objectives got in. involved, and then I think the black community sort of got lost in the shuffle. Richard, I want to thank you for the work that you're doing and coming on the Daily Signal to share these stories with us. It's incredibly important to all of us at here at the Heritage Foundation and Daily Signal that we keep this history alive and continue to tell these stories. It's so powerful to hear about them and to have somebody like yourself who cares so passionately do it is a real treat for us. So I want to thank you again for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast and hope to have a future conversation with you and continue talking about

this. Well, I want to thank you. I appreciate what you're doing, and I hope you do continue to do this service for our community. Thank you. Thank you. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government, it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown socialism, and we'll fight four conservative solutions that are making families more free and more prosperous. But we can't do it without you.

Please join us at heritage.org. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Daily Signal's Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, what do our readers have to say this week? Well, Ronald Beattie writes in, he's the county commissioner of Barnes Stable, Massachusetts, and he says, Dear Daily Signal, sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, such as those being considered in Massachusetts, threaten public safety.

Illegal aliens are up to five and a half times more likely to be incarcerated in state prisons and county jails than a U.S. citizen or legal immigrants. Moreover, sanctuary policies are unfair to legal immigrants who did things right and followed the law to come to America properly. And in response to Virginia Abrams article about Cal Thomas's new book, America's expiration date, Drake writes, Very timely piece. I am an optimist, but I see the items that Cal has mentioned, coupled with one not mentioned, which I think is the total disregard for the rule of law by individual members of our government,

as well as a growing number of citizens. Neither side has the monopoly on that corruption. That truth will implicate them. That, in my opinion, is what will bring down the high. house. So tell me who has the capacity to end the corruption, only those in power who perpetrate it. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. Send an email to letters at dailysignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you.

Thank you, Rob. Chris Oslovich is a New Jersey FedEx driver. He was working his usual route, delivering packages when he noticed an American flag on the ground of someone's front yard. Oslovich was not even delivering a package to the home with the down flag, but he quickly pulled his truck over, hopped out, and unclipped the flag from the pole that had been knocked over by heavy winds, and he properly folded the stars and stripes. The homeowner, Rick Guriner Jr., received an alert on his phone from his ringed doorbell camera, saying that there was movement on his property. Gurenner watched as Oslovich placed the folded flag neatly on his front porch.

The homeowner shared the video on social media and it went viral. Fox and Friends weekend invited Oslovich on the show to explain why he stopped to fold the American flag. Well, it's usually when you see something that, you know, isn't right. Some people just think nothing of it somebody else would do it and they just keep on going by. Something like that, though, when you see the flag on the ground, that's a sign of this respect. the flight should never be desecrated like that. So you have to stop and you have to do something, whether people

are watching or not. Oslovic's late father was a first responder on 9-11. He himself hopes to be a law enforcement officer one day and spoke openly on Fox about what the memory of September 11th means to him. 9-11, unfortunately, you know, was

a disaster, you know, and something tragic that happened to our country. But in the end, it helped bring everybody together and help unite, you know, us as a country. And we all have to stand behind the flag because that's, that's who we are. That's where we come from. You know, I was brought up to be proud of where you come from and take pride in what you do. So when you see the flag on the ground, you have to do something. Love this reminder from Oslovich that, you know, the flag is the symbol of unity in our country, symbol of our history. Just a great reminder to be patriotic and

distinct in unity as a nation. It certainly is. Thanks so much, Virginia. I always appreciate you finding those good news stories to start the week. Yeah, well, it's certainly fun. One of the fun as parts of my job, getting to find good news to share with everyone. Absolutely. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurcache Audio Network. All our shows can be found at dailysignal.com slash podcast. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please do us a review and a five-star rating.

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