I attended the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth a couple of days ago and I was intrigued by this piece of art work. This is called “Ladder for Booker T. Washington.” Martin Puryear created this piece of sculpture out of wood. Ash and Maple to be more specific. There are many ways people can say about what this ladder symbolizes. Puryear’s conclusion to making this ladder is to homage Booker T. Washington’s ambitions and the difficulty of him reaching the top. It is true because Washington’s views were frown upon-ed by other African American peers because of his lack of being politically active when it came to trying to accomplishing the goal of getting equal rights. Booker T. Washington was still respected because of what he stood for which was making the “American Dream” become a reality. An example of what this reminded me was a poem we as a class were assigned to read which was “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes. In his poem Hughes is asking for equality. America is advertised to be such a great country when in reality it has flaws and in order to make it “great” there has to be equal rights to everyone no matter the color of their skin or their religion. Even though now a days equality has improved, racism still exists and even women are not treated as equal as men. No matter how much we climb that ladder it seems impossible to reach the top because of the limitless amount of obstacles that will occur. That is the why I see it and it makes sense because of all of the stories I have read by African American writers such as James Baldwin and Ann Petry. The first moment I looked at this ladder I knew I wanted to use this as example as African American views to equality because everyone saw potential for a goal of equality like Booker T. Washington but reaching the full potential is unreachable which is demonstrated by the really long ladder that seems to go on forever.