The Reconstruction Period Summary and Analysis

Washington notes that the Negroes were obsessed with holding public office and with learning Greek and Latin. He says neither was especially beneficial for several reasons. Those who were earning seventy-five or one hundred dollars a month were often in debt before the end of every month. Men who earned only four dollars per month would spend two of that on a buggy ride up Pennsylvania Avenue to convince people they were worth more.

Washington says that many of those who held offices were uneducated and unable to find work after they left office. By the same token, many who got an inkling of education became teachers or preachers. The young girls who were taught by their mothers to be laundresses went to school for six or eight years, coming away with no more desire to work...