Black Conservative Dissent

This chapter traces the history of Black conservative ideology and its controversial approaches to racial equality, self-help, Black identity, and culture. Throughout the twentieth century, conservative leaders and intellectuals, such as Booker T. Washington, George Schuyler, Joseph Jackson, Thomas Sowell, Anne Wortham, and Shelby Steele, contributed to national debates regarding the nature of inequality and racial discrimination as well as public policy. Although varied in their approaches and perspectives, Black conservatives advocate a coherent ideology that disrupts notions of a homogeneous Black intellectual tradition.