The Process of Self-Actualization Among Three Historic African American Leaders

Abstract

Frederick Douglass (1845), W.E.B. Du Bois (1940), and Booker T. Washington (1963) are pioneering examples of historic African American leaders who realized the fullness of their potentialities despite the inhumanity of their day-to-day circumstances (Morrison, 1987). It was through their abilities to respond to the individual and shared needs of their regularly enslaved, often mistreated, and systemically oppressed African American community that they individually and culturally epitomized the spirit of what psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) defined as self-actualization (Maslow, 1971/1993). The researcher will use text-based data in order to examine the process of development among the three historic figures as they relate to Maslow’s theory of self-actualization (Maslow, 1971/1993). Through this process the researcher utilizes published autobiographical books, essays, and speeches authored by each of the three men while integrating the cultural and historical context of their lived experiences through the humanistic and positive psychological lens of Maslow’s theory of self-actualization. The researcher discovered through a qualitative autobiographical analysis of the three men that there were 15 common attributes to their process of self-actualization. Given that low self-esteem, depression, and learned helplessness are negatively impacting many aspects of the African American community, community leaders, mental health practitioners, and other advocates for underserved communities of color, have a tremendous opportunity to provide resources, training, and treatment to those struggling within the African American community in order to slow the tide of low self-esteem and unrealized potential.