BLACK LEADERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the time after the fall of radical black reconstruction of the nineteenth century, African Americans were being oppressed by rural farming, civil rights, economical advancement and sharecropping. Booker T. Washington charged the fight for economical and political accommodation with his dream of equal civil rights. Timothy Thomas Fortune was an influential black journalist that fought for the rights of African Americans through literal resistance. The Lonely Warrior, Ida B. Wells was an outspoken voice against lynching throughout America and fought against the oppression of men and woman everywhere. Booker T. Washington was one of the last great African American leaders born into slavery. Washington emphasized political means and civil rights along with economic means and self-determination. Washington was the founder of the Tuskegee Normal and the Industrial Institute in 1881, for the development of skilled trade. The Instituted was the largest self-black supported Institution in America at the time. The school taught the arts of trade, self-determination and economical independence of sharecropping. Washington gave the Atlanta Compromise Address in 1895, to disclaim the notion of white supremacy and social equality to the south. Booker T. Washington sought to influence whites, but sought out the solid programs of economical and educational progress for blacks. Washington was one that thought that speaking out against injustice was self-defeating and should be suppressed. Washington founded the National Negro Business League in 1900, helped put a stronghold on substantial black population and did little for black business. As the chief black advisor to President Roosevelt and Taft, Washington devoted much of his time to securing federal jobs and used political power to win over key political figures in the North. He aided many blacks businesses but also hindered the activities of those who spoke against him. He also helped appoint the first black assistant US Attorney General. Many of Washington's ideas and concepts are still being used today in black communities. Booker T. Washington was in control of many black newspapers that agreed with his views and opinions.... ... middle of paper ... ...hting for all possible rights. Ida B. Well's kept up her fight for black equality for all African-Americans. Her fight stayed alive for some time until mutual friends such as Washington and Fortune decided to push her out of newspaper journalism for black rights and eventually out of the NAACP. All three figures that are talked about above are some of the greatest leaders in the fight for African-American rights. Booker T. Washington was a fine leader in (towards starting) the movement to push black equality, however he lacked the courage to be a true leader because he only wanted to keep whites pleased. The "Agitator" as Thomas T. Fortune was a great editor of black newspaper, next to Du Bois. Fortune is not all that and a bag of chips. He is a man that lived on hiding behind Washington and his ideas, was just a toy of Washington. "Joan of Arc", Ida B. Wells was the anti-lynching spokeswomen and the true heart and soul behind the fight for black equality in America. She is the only true independent leader out of the above. Wells spoke her mind, which was the truth, and she never looked back even when it was her life that mattered.
The history of The Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a fascinating account of a group of human beings, forcibly taken from their homeland, brought to a strange new continent, and forced to endure countless inhuman atrocities. Forced into a life of involuntary servitude to white slave owners, African Americans were to face an uphill battle for many years to come. Who would face that battle? To say the fight for black civil rights "was a grassroots movement of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things" would be an understatement. Countless people made it their life's work to see the progression of civil rights in America. People like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, A Phillip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many others contributed to the fight although it would take ordinary people as well to lead the way in the fight for civil rights. This paper will focus on two people whose intelligence and bravery influenced future generations of civil rights organizers and crusaders. Ida B.Wells and Mary Mcleod Bethune were two African American women whose tenacity and influence would define the term "ordinary to extraordinary".
Ida B. Wells-Barnett dedicated her life to social justice and equality. She devoted her tremendous energies to building the foundations of African-American progress in business, politics, and law. Wells-Barnett was a key participant in the formation of the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She spoke eloquently in support of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The legacies of these organizations have been tremendous and her contribution to each was timely and indespensible. But no cause challenged the courage and integrity of Ida B. Wells-Barnett as much as her battle against mob violence and the terror of lynching at the end of the 19th century.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett is an investigative journalist who wrote in honesty and bluntness about the tragedies and continued struggles of the Negro man. She was still very much involved with the issue even after being granted freedom and the right to vote. Statistics have shown that death and disparity continued to befall the Negro people in the South where the white man was “educated so long in that school of practice” (Pg. 677 Par. 2). Yet in all the countless murders of Negroes by the white man only three had been convicted. The white man of the South, although opposed to the freedom of Negroes would eventually have to face the fact of the changing times. However, they took every opportunity and excuse to justify their continued horrors. There were three main excuses that the white man of the South came up w...
option to him because it seemed to have better results. On the other hand, Booker T. Washington recognized existing equally with whites wouldn’t be a simple task. This is why ...
Prominent leaders of the time included Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks, who led blacks to fight for their rights, and stand up for their cause.
...hile Wells and Dubois had more opinion that are looking out for the African–Americans, Washington had more of an influence when it came to the amount of audiences he reached and his supporters were from all sides; Northerners, Southerners, and African-Ameicans.
“It should come as no surprise that Washington’s historical conflict culminated as a struggle between him and DuBois” (Gibson III 66). To say the least, both men were very active in the upbringing of African-Americans, but their differences in displaying out the solution was what brought them apart. Washington wanted the education system to enforce industrial teachings that started at lower economic power, while DuBois had more abstract ideas of equality and voting for African-Americans. Washington was conservative in the matter of African-American inclusion into society, hoping that given enough time and progress, people would learn to accept them, rather than fight for social power like what DuBois stood for. Despite Washington’s program that appealed to White-Americans, he was involved in politics and spoke about the disfranchisement of African-Americans. His idea of easing tensions with the superior gathered him more publicity, as to DuBois’s plan of protesting. As a result, DuBois’s idea became more prominent as it branches into what we know now as the civil rights movement. Historically, Washington and DuBois has made a name for themselves, through their intentions for the good will of African-Americans, and that is something that will always hold true in these two notorious
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were both pioneers in striving to obtain equality for blacks, yet their ways of achieving this equality were completely different. W.E.B. Du Bois is the more celebrated figure today since he had the better method because it didn’t give the whites any power, and his method was intended to achieve a more noble goal than Washington’s. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. Like many slaves at that time, historians are not sure of the exact place or date of his birth (Washington, Up From Slavery 7). Washington had absolutely no schooling while he was a slave; he received all his education after he was set free.... ...
...to be equally educated. His speeches not only attracted the black people but also, northern and southern white people. Booker worked hard for all that he achieved during his life time. People all over were followers of Booker T. Washington. One example of how much these followers appreciated Washington is through raising money for a trip to Europe. Not just anyone went to Europe in those days. The trip showed how much the people appreciated Booker’s efforts for civil rights and education of blacks. They sent
We can see that African Americans were still struggling for equality even after the emancipation and the abolishment of slavery. They still did not get the equal rights and opportunities compared to whites. This had been reflected in the first essay in Du Bois’s book with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings that indicates blacks were denied the opportunity that were available to the whites even after emancipation. During the days of Jim Crow, people of color received unfair treatment from almost all aspects of their lives. At that time, not all people were brave enough to express and speak up their desire for transformation. Two most influential black leaders that were known to have the courage to speak up their beliefs in social equality were
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. ...
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.
Print Moore, Jacqueline M. Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, and the struggle for racial uplift.
Booker T Washington once said “ Do a common thing in an uncommon way.” Washington started his education in 1875 at Hampton University, then furthered his education from 1878-1879 at Wayland Seminary. Between 1890 and 1915 (25 years), Washington was an american educator, author and a big leader in the African-American community. Washington was a part of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which is the act to make all public accommodations equal. Two year prior to finishing his education, Washington opened up Tuskegee University on July 4th, 1881, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Tuskegee University is a private, historically black University.