The Influence of One Man
After slavery was abolished, African Americans worked to integrate into mainstream American society. During the twentieth century many African American civil rights leaders led the African American civil rights movement. All of them had different ideas and approaches to further improve the status for the African American individual in attempt to gain civil equality. The pioneer civil rights leaders of the twentieth century were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. Their respected ideas were known to have contradicted with each other. Malcolm X, a black supremacist was a member of the NOI (Nation of Islam) and based his platforms of teachings off from religion. Martin Luther King Jr.’s approach towards gaining equality was of nonviolent actions. This proved to have been the most effective way to solidify through legislature the civil rights of African Americans within America. With that solid, Martin Luther King Jr. was the most productive and influential African American civil rights leader within the civil rights movement.
Booker T. Washington believed that by first gaining Economic respect, civil right for African Americans will also slowly, but gradually become achieved. Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Academy, an institution for African Americans. At Tuskegee Academy, Washington states: “My plan was to have them, while performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of labour, so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts, but the students themselves would be taught to see not only utility in labour, but beauty and dignity” (Washington, Up from Slavery, an Autobiography). Booker T. Washington accepted the fact of white supremacy. His ideas focused more...
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"Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)." Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956). N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2014. .
Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery, an Autobiography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. Print.
"W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963: He Fought for Civil Rights for Black People."VOA. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2014. < http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2007-02-03-voa1-83135272/128013.html>
Williams, Donnie, and Wayne Greenhaw. The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2006. Print.
X, Malcolm, “It shall be the ballot or the bullet” Washington Heights, NY IN. March 29, 1964 < http://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/history/hpol/malcolm-x/ballot-or-bullet>
Although W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T Washington were very different, they undoubtedly influenced the Black population of the United States. Du Bois, although supported communism, excellent in a utopian society yet devastating in reality, had his people's interest at heart. Booker T Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, did help some Black population's problems, yet he was more interested with the White culture and its ideals.
Born the son of a slave, Booker Taliaferro Washington was considered during his time to be the spokesman of the African American race. Washington believed that if African Americans focused their attention on striving economically, they would eventually be given the rights they were owed. With this in mind, he encouraged blacks to attend trade schools where they could learn to work either industrially or agriculturally. At his famous Atlanta Exposition Address in Atlanta he declared, "Our greatest danger is that, in the great leap from slavery to freedom, we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in the proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life" (Humanities Washington).
Malcolm X, born in 1925 as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska lived with the knowledge that his family house was burned down and that his father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan because he refused to vacate an area that was “supposed” to be for Whites only. His father was an independent man who wanted to fend for his family by himself and not have to rely on anyone
Booker T. Washington was an educator and an influential African American leader. His vision was for African Americans to ignore the discrimination and continue working hard in the crafts, industries, and farmlands. His belief was that the more skills education
Booker T. Washington believed that blacks should not push to attain equal civil and political rights with whites. That it was best to concentrate on improving their economic skills and the quality of their character. The burden of improvement resting squarely on the shoulders of the black man. Eventually they would earn the respect and love of the white man, and civil and political rights would be accrued as a matter of course. This was a very non-threatening and popular idea with a lot of whites.
(3) Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955): After the supreme court decided to end segregation, African Americans started to speak out more about their racial opinions. In Montgomery, Alabama, a bus boycott ended with a victory for the African Americans. The Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama segregation laws were unconstitutional. During the boycott a young African American Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr. became well known. Throughout the long contest he advised African Americans to avoid violence no matter had badly provoked by whites. Rosa Parks tired of sitting in the back of the bus, and giving up her seat to white men. One weary day she refused to move from the front of the bus, and she became one of history's heroes in the Civil Rights Act movement.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott can be viewed as a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as neither one’s success was due solely to the work of the political system; a transformation in the consciousness of America was the most impactful success of both. Passionate racism ran in the veins of 1950s America, primarily in the south, and no integration law would influence the widespread belief that African Americans were the same level of human as Caucasians. The abolition of racism as a political norm had to start with a unanimous belief among blacks that they had power as American citizens; once they believed that to be true, there was no limit to the successes they could see.
This book was about Booker T Washington who was a slave on a plantation in Virginia until he was nine years old. His autobiography offers readers a look into his life as a young child. Simple pleasures, such as eating with a fork, sleeping in a bed, and wearing comfortable clothing, were unavailable to Washington and his family. His brief glimpses into a schoolhouse were all it took to make him long for a chance to study and learn. Readers will enjoy the straightforward and strong voice Washington uses to tell his story. The book document his childhood as a slave and his efforts to get an education, and he directly credits his education with his later success as a man of action in his community and the nation. Washington details his transition from student to teacher, and outlines his own development as an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He tells the story of Tuskegee's growth, from classes held in a shantytown to a campus with many new buildings. In the final chapters of, it Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist. Washington includes the address he gave at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, which made him a national figure. He concludes his autobiography with an account of several recognitions he has received for his work, including an honorary degree from Harvard, and two significant visits to Tuskegee, one by President McKinley and another by General Samuel C. Armstrong. During his lifetime, Booker T. Washington was a national leader for the betterment of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. He advocated for economic and industrial improvement of Blacks while accommodating Whites on voting rights and social equality.
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, both early advocates of the civil rights movement, offered solutions to the discrimination experienced by black men and women in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Despite having that in common, the two men had polar approaches to that goal. Washington, a man condoning economic efficiency had a more gradual approach as opposed to Du Bois, whose course involved immediate and total equality both politically and economically. For the time period, Washington overall offers a more effective and appropriate proposition for the time whereas Du Bois's approach is precedent to movements in the future. Both have equal influence over African Americans in politics. Washington's proposal excels in reference to education while Du Bois can be noted for achieving true respect from white Americans.
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, and David J. Garrow, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), 46.
In 1903 black leader and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois wrote an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others.” Both Washington and Du Bois were leaders of the black community in the 19th and 20th century, even though they both wanted to see the same outcome for black Americans, they disagreed on strategies to help achieve black social and economic progress. History shows that W.E.B Du Bois was correct in racial equality would only be achieved through politics and higher education of the African American youth.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more aggressive strategy. He studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and the University of Berlin before he went on to study at Harvard. He then took a low paying research job at the University of Pennsylvania, using a new discipline of sociology which emphasized factual observation in the field to study the condition of blacks. The first study of the effect of urban life on blacks, it cited a wealth of statistics, all suggesting that crime in the ward stemmed not from inborn degeneracy but from the environment in which blacks lived. Change the environment, and people would change too; education was a good way to go about it. The different strategies offered by W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington in dealing with the problems of poverty and discrimination faced by Black Americans were education, developing economic skills, and insisting on things continually such as the right to vote. ...
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were very significant during the Civil Rights Movement. Both were excellent speakers and shared one goal but had two different ways of resolving it. Martin Luther King Jr. chose to resolve the issues by using non-violence to create equality amongst all races to accomplish the goal. Malcolm X also wanted to decrease discrimination and get of segregation but by using another tactic to successfully accomplish the similar goal. The backgrounds of both men were one of the main driven forces behind the ways they executed their plans to rise above the various mistreatments. Martin Luther King Jr. was a more pronounced orator, a more refined leader, and overall saw the larger picture than Malcolm X.
Booker T. Washington was a young black male born into the shackles of Southern slavery. With the Union victory in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, Washington’s family and blacks in the United States found hope in a new opportunity, freedom. Washington saw this freedom as an opportunity to pursue a practical education. Through perseverance and good fortunes, Washington was able to attain that education at Hampton National Institute. At Hampton, his experiences and beliefs in industrial education contributed to his successful foundation at the Tuskegee Institute. The institute went on to become the beacon of light for African American education in the South. Booker T. Washington was an influential voice in the African American community following the Civil War. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington outlines his personal accounts of his life, achievements, and struggles. In the autobiography, Washington fails to address the struggle of blacks during Reconstruction to escape the southern stigma of African Americans only being useful for labor. However, Washington argues that blacks should attain an industrial education that enables them to find employment through meeting the economic needs of the South, obtaining moral character and intelligence, and embracing practical labor. His arguments are supported through his personal accounts as a student at Hampton Institute and as an administrator at the Tuskegee Institute. Washington’s autobiography is a great source of insight into the black education debate following Reconstruction.
...ivil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Educa2tion of Topeka decision of 1954.” The Montgomery bus boycott happened on “December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks... who refused to give up her sear to a white passenger on a bus” she was arrested. Later, the Supreme Court ruled “segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956.”