1929 TUSKEGEE. What the Negro Thinks. Inscribed from Tuskeegee President to Hampton Institute Major.

A superb first edition of R. R. Motons work on the state of Negro self-consciousness in the 1920s. He was the successor to Booker T. Washington and was, in the same mold, of the mind that the best pathway forward for black America was charity and being successful enough to warrant mutual respect. He was deeply respected by Civil Rights leaders such as Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King Jr, but seen as week by more militant strains of the movement.

The present copy inscribed from Moton to his dear friends, Major and Mrs. Allen Washington, who succeeded him as Cadet Commander at another HBCU, Hamilton Institute. The Motons and Washingtons were close, traveling together to Europe and domestically to spread the message of black excellence, empowering positive black movements in local communities, etc.,

Moton, Robert Russia. What the Negro Thinks. Garden City. Doubleday, Doran and Company Inc. 1929. 267pp.

A good copy, bound in cloth with the corners and spine bumped and chipped, and the collections front hinge is tender, but generally solid, with bright and clean pages.