368 Chapter 15
Though in reality public service jobs were accessed through patronage
networks, and Afro-Cubans were prevented from joining these
through sheer racism, Afro-Cuban leaders sought to remove justifica-
tions for racism, and education was one such excuse used by those
who would exclude blacks. Their interest in Tuskegee therefore makes
sense. But Washington had different interests. He too sought racial
harmony and racial uplift, and sought to prove to whites that African
Americans could and should be accepted as cultured and educated
members of the economy and society. However, he was particularly
interested in the changing character of southern rural life as slavery
and then reconstruction efforts ended, and many southern African
Americans were caught in unfavorable sharecropping situations. Giv-
ing African Americans in the South the agricultural skills or an exper-
tise in a trade that could be profitable was his goal. Therefore, their
focuses were different—urban and middle-class for the Afro-Cubans
discussed here, and rural and lower class for Booker T. Washington. In
addition, when the strategies for racial uplift of black leaders were put
into action, they were translated very differently by the historical
actors who lived them than by the intellectuals and leaders who
thought and wrote them. Thus some Afro-Cuban students at Tuske-
gee were incredibly successful, but most did not graduate. And the
Puerto Rican students who were sent by an imperial government mas-
tered their education and their trades before graduating from Tuske-
gee. More research is needed to explore what this diasporic exchange
meant to the students.^15 What was the experience of these people
caught up in this experiment led by the American government and
black leaders alike? Specifically, did they subscribe to the strategies of
racial uplift shared by their respective leaders, or did the actual experi-
ence of nationalism, imperialism, and diaspora alter their views?
Exploring their experiences, as well as the transmission of ideas of
racial uplift by politicians and intellectuals, in a transnational context
uncovers different concerns than those which are emphasized by the
existing national historiographies.
- Frank Guridy has begun this work in his recent book.