Jornal Entry on "Up From Slavery"

Stephen Greene
English 48B
January 11, 2011
Journal # 3 Booker T. Washington

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. ... [O]ut of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, [the Negro boy] gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race". (679, American Literature)

"Washington valued the "industrial" education, as it provided critical skills for the jobs then available to the majority of African-Americans at the time. It would be these skills that would lay the foundation for the creation of stability that the African-American community required in order to move forward". (Wikipedia, "Booker T. Washington")

Washington defines what success means in his eyes, and how he believes it should be measured in others.  He imparts more value to the willpower and resolve necessary in an individual to overcome struggle than to the traditionally more sought after version measured by financial and social status. In addition, Washington says that mere presence of challenges strengthens one's character.

His position that success is determined by the obstacles which one overcomes, at once lends itself to the arguments for two of Washington's most emphasized points.  Firstly, Washington stressed, that in the time period in which he lived the newly free generations of African Americans should not be judged too harshly given their extremely debilitating beginnings.  Many of the former slaves, thrust into a competitive world, were unprepared for the new set of challenges that they faced once free.  They could not be expected, Washington argues, to perform on par with whites immediately.  His definition of success as a completion of challenges seeks to persuade the whites to judge these newly freed men on their effort and improvement.
        Secondly, Washington's definition of success accounts for both the higher level of difficulty of, and greater personal growth caused by a lifetime of overcoming obstacles.  The struggle of the African Americans, before freed, gave them the strength and determination that Washington believed was necessary for them to overcome the racial inequalities that they were presented with.
         Washington's proposed refinement of our interpretation of success is specifically applied to the situation of the post-civil war African American, but I believe that we can benefit, even to this day, from a more qualitative measure of success.  One could argue that our determinants of success have only gotten more quantitative and superficially based over time.  We currently label one's quantity of financial possessions as something severely close to that of success. 

        I personally believe that one's character is almost entirely shaped by their experiences, and in agreement with Washington's assessment, strengthened through challenge.  At a general level this applies to society as a whole and suggests that we should hold individuals who overcome obstacles in higher esteem than those who simply hold their high position of birth.  On a smaller scale, this concept can be aimed directly at the individual's character and impart a motivation to look past the obstacles he/she is faced with.  This translates into a cycle described by the psychological concept of self-efficacy or the idea that through success, one is not only more likely to attempt a future challenge, but more likely to succeed at it.  In short, I believe that Booker T. Washington's definition is beneficial to both the society and the individual.