The makings of civil rights?

Benjamin Franklin's publication concerning his plan for improving the condition of the free blacks was very interesting to me, because it speaks to the sort of issues we have been discussing in class, specifically with regards to Equiano. In much the same fashion that Equiano integrates himself into English society, and in doing so, calls into question the English identity as being anything more than someone who behaves like an Englishman, Franklin seems to suggest that we can take free blacks, educate them, find them work, and essentially act as their guardians in an effort to bring them out of poverty and into society. When I read this piece I really got a sense of social Darwinism--that Franklin believes that he, as an educated white man, is superior racially to these people seems certain--but that Darwinism (which I guess at this point wouldn't be labeled that haha) is not malicious in any way. I believe Franklin sees this issue in much the same way civil rights leaders in the early 1900s such as Booker T Washington did, namely, that blacks could indeed improve their lot in this country, but the way to do it was to work with white Americans, and try to improve their station to a certain point. Not until the 20th Century do we see civil rights leaders calling for full equality among the races, but it is interesting to see that at this point, in 1789, barely a decade after the Revolutionary War, Franklin can already see that free blacks will come to form an important and essential facet of the new American society. His compassion, coupled with his ingenuity for organization and administration allows him to create a comprehensive, albeit paternalistic, approach toward Free Blacks. It also struck me that his plan was for "improving the condition" of the Free Blacks, and not toward integrating them, or merely dealing with them; he seems to genuinely be concerned for making sure they are an important, and even positive force in his society.