The Mis-Education of the Negro

In Chapter 17, Woodson makes one of his final arguments regarding the need for new Black professionals, which is to say that there needs to be a “new figure in politics, one who will not concern himself so much with what others can do for him as with what he can do for himself” (94). This confidence is necessary if Black politicians are to begin shifting “the economic foundation of the social order” (95) and lift the Black community out of poverty. If, Woodson argues, a Black person goes into office, it must be “as a sacrifice” (95).

Though Woodson does, at several points, reference the need for a shift to a communist political structure, he cautions that it is critical for the Black community not to wait for such a change. Instead, the Black politician “will be better prepared to take care of himself in the subsequent reconstruction if he develops the power to ascend to a position higher up” (96) in the immediate sense. To this point, Woodson believes that “the Negro needs to become radical […] but this radicalism should come from within” (96). The kind of politician needed by the Black community is one who can individually assert themselves and work towards the uplift of their community as a sacrifice to it.