“Crossing the Delaware”: Booker T. Washington’s July 1910 Tour of the First State

This article examines Booker T. Washington’s two-day educational tour of Delaware from July 3 to July 4, 1910, a little-known but significant episode in his broader campaign for Black uplift and racial harmony in the Jim Crow South. While historians have thoroughly documented Washington’s tours of Mississippi, Texas, and the Carolinas, among other states, historians have not devoted comparable attention to his Delaware tour. Accordingly, the present article fills a scholarly gap by analyzing Washington’s speeches; his interactions with local supporters, especially the Colored Business Men’s League of Wilmington; and the social, political, economic, and cultural climates of early twentieth-century Delaware. Washington’s tours were grounded in his philosophy of practical education and economic self-reliance, which combined the classics with agricultural, industrial, normal (pedagogical), and vocational learning. Dedicated to moral uplift, Washington sought to meet the masses and inspire them toward self-betterment. Receptive to financial support from Whites but cognizant of white terror during the nadir, Washington laced his Delaware speeches with optimistic hyperbole and indirect critiques of bias, discrimination, and injustice. He employed coded language designed to promote societal change without provoking backlash from White audiences. Through those approaches to the color line, Washington subtly encouraged racial cooperation and accumulated donations from White philanthropists while advancing his agenda for Black advancement. Through a close examination of Washington’s eight stops in Delaware, this article not only reconstructs a forgotten chapter of his storied legacy but also sheds light on how his leadership methods operated on both the local and the national levels. Ultimately, Washington’s Delaware tour reflected his larger efforts to uplift African Americans through careful negotiation, educational advancement, and covert resistance to racial oppression, reinforcing his enduring significance in US history.