The real tragedy for the Southern Negro is that Leftist White demagogues, in reconstruction, promised "equality from Government", and the skills taught on the plantations were not passed on to the next generation, with the result that the percentage of skilled craftsmen who were Black collapsed by the 1890s, as well as did the health conditions.
It was in this situation that Booker T. Washington made his appeal to the Southern White leadership in 1895. Read the speech to appreciate the monstrous lie that has been inculcated in people like the "CNN Commentator":
Booker T. Washington Address