354 Chapter 15
intellectuals, journalists and independence activists, had been exiled to
Florida and New York in the 1880s and 90s, and had there become
familiar with the African American response to slavery, racism, and
discrimination—particularly under the leadership of Booker T. Wash-
ington, whose autobiography was widely read. When the next genera-
tion of Cubans—including Juan Gualberto Gómez’s son—went to
Alabama, they entered a society that, to be sure, was racist and segre-
gationist, and under the control of Jim Crow laws, but where never-
theless African Americans were also continuing to take action within
their own communities. In particular, Booker T. Washington had
developed an alternative educational system, called industrial educa-
tion. In addition to literacy—which had long been a cherished goal for
African Americans—and other academic subjects, his students had to
specialize in a trade. The Caribbean students, for example, specialized
in trades as varied as millinery, dairy, dress-making, electrical engineer-
ing, agriculture, and architecture.
Booker T. Washington’s commitment to economic methods of
advancement was highly criticized both in his own time and in the
subsequent historiography, which has seen him as accommodating the
white power structure. His educational philosophy has been criticized
as a way to keep African-Americans doing menial labor without the
possibility of socioeconomic advancement. When it comes to his
involvement with the African diaspora, Washington’s most famous
biographer describes him as taking up the white man’s burden himself,
cooperating with white colonial authorities in a way that was consis-
tent with his acceptance of southern racism and his partnerships with
American white elites (Harlan 1966: 441). More recent historiography,
however, has absolved Washington of these claims. A recent biogra-
phy by Robert Norrell asserts that previous historians have ignored
the inefficacy of political protest at Washington’s time. He points out
that Washington did in fact attempt to advocate for political rights at
various moments, but was almost always defeated in that realm,
whereas his school was successful by many measures (Norrell 2009).
Wilson Jeremiah Moses has pointed out that even in his own time, it