Booker T. Washington 4

It is considered general knowledge that slavery was one of the biggest struggles this nation faced. However, many forget that the strife did not end when slavery was abolished. Reconstruction laid a heavy hand on this country and nearly tore it apart. Booker T. Washington explains this concept in his famous tree analogy. “Before our freedom, a giant tree was growing in the garden [slavery], which all considered injurious to the progress of the whole …

…the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of sever and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing” (Washington 140). Washington needed to realize that no political changes would come about without the black population demanding them. If the African-Americans did not command civil rights, the whites would never have bothered to change their ways. In this situation, speaking out is necessary.