After the Emancipation Proclamation was declared by Abraham Lincoln, there were many ideas on how the newly freed slaves should be integrated into the new United States. The two men at the forefront of this issue were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du bois. Both of these men were two of the most respected African American men in the United States and they were also very involved in politics. They fought to get equality for the free slaves because they knew that being free is different from being equal. However, they had different ideas for obtaining this dream. Booker T. Washington wanted to wait and let everything come naturally because he believed that black and white men could get through their differences and see each other as …show more content…
Washington and W.E.B. Du bois fought for the equality of African Americans, they had different beliefs on how this should be obtained.
Booker T. Washington sees the freedom of the slaves in the south as an end to the injustice they have been forced to live through. In his Atlanta Compromise Speech, Washington speaks with great optimism because of the result of the Civil War (Document 6). This optimism was very prevalent in this sentence, "In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; " (Document 5). Washington believes that soon enough black and whites will be seen as equals and that newly freed black men, women, and children can take new roles as equal citizens in a newly formed society. Booker T. Washington sees the freedom of the slaves as a great new opportunity for the black community and United States.
W.E.B. Du bois on the other hand, believes that the freedom of the slaves is only the beginning of the fight. He believes that Washington is too passive and that the black population 2 needs to fight for freedom because the southern whites look to exercise any opportunity they
…show more content…
(Document 5)" He is trying to tell the black community that they are not 3 equal because they do not share the same rights as black people. He wants them to come together and make change but in a peaceful way to show that they are civilized and just as much human as the white folk (Document 5). The use of the Constitution was the most important part of this quote because it confirms the argument that he proposes is valid. Without the words from the
Thomas Jefferson Du bois argument lacks severe support and would not provoke any change rights of the southern blacks. W.E.B. Du bois wants the blacks of the south to fight for equal rights and not just wait for the white men to see them as equals because they never will as long as they do nothing.
The idea of a peaceful fight for equality is something these two men shared. They knew that if blood was shed that the whites would see them freed slaves as animals and that they should not be allowed to have the same rights as them much less be free citizens in the United
States. Du bois said, "By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois are two incredibly famous civil rights activists in United States history. Although they both sought to uplift blacks socially and economically across the country, they clashed over the best strategy for doing so. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, it’s understandable as to why they disagreed. However, as is evident by our current societal problems, Du Bois was the one who had the correct plan. That doesn’t mean that Washington’s ideas were wrong, but they were a temporary solution to a permanent and systematic problem.
W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T Washington were very different, they undoubtedly influenced the Black population of the United States.
What Du Bois says here is important, because it deals with three very important topics all at once. He mentions African-Americans needing the right to vote, how discrimination because of color is very wrong, and how black children need education. All in this one sentence has three important view on different subjects beneath the umbrella of African-Americans being treated the same as white people.
... same thing for blacks, first-class citizenship, but their methods for obtaining it differed. Because of the interest in immediate goals contained in Washington’s economic approach, whites did not realize that he anticipated the complete acceptance and integration of Negroes into American life. He believed blacks, starting with so little, would have to begin at the bottom and work up gradually to achieve positions of power and responsibility before they could demand equal citizenship—even if it meant temporarily assuming a position of inferiority. DuBois understood Washington’s program, but believed that it was not the solution to the “race problem.” Blacks should study the liberal arts, and have the same rights as white citizens. Blacks, DuBois believed, should not have to sacrifice their constitutional rights in order to achieve a status that was already guaranteed.
Booker T. Washington was an African American leader who established an African-American college in 1181. Then in 1895 delivered the Atlanta Compromise Speech to an audience of mainly Southerners, but some Northerners were present. In his speech he made a few points. He said, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Washington believed that the African American race needed to learn first that manual labor was just as important as the work of intellects. He thought that until they learned this they were not worthy of becoming intellects themselves. The color line is thus important in teaching them this lesson. He also said, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.” His opinion was that one day blacks would deserve to have equal rights with the whites, but right now in 1895 the blacks needed to be...
During the late 19th and early 20th century, racial injustice was very prominent and even wildly accepted in the South. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two of the most renowned “pioneers in the [search] for African-American equality in America” (Washington, DuBois, and the Black Future). Washington was “born a slave” who highly believed in the concept of “separate but equal,” meaning that “we can be as [distant] as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington 1042). DuBois was a victim of many “racial problems before his years as a student” and disagreed with Washington’s point of view, which led
When talking about the history of African-Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, two notable names cannot be left out; Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois. They were both African-American leaders in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, fighting for social justice, education and civil rights for slaves, and both stressed education. This was a time when blacks were segregated and discriminated against. Both these men had a vision to free blacks from this oppression. While they came from different backgrounds, Washington coming from a plantation in Virginia where he was a slave, and Du Bois coming from a free home in Massachusetts, they both experienced the heavy oppression blacks were under in this Post-Civil War society. 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 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.
Du Bois was a scholar activist who proposed lots of solutions for the issue of racism and discrimination. Du Bois was sort of an opposition to Washington’s ideology, as he strongly believes that it can only help to disseminate white’s oppression towards blacks. We can see his dissatisfaction based on his writing with a title On Booker T. Washington and Others. He wrote that Washington’s philosophy was really not a good idea because the white extremists from the south will perceived this idea as blacks’ complete surrender for the request of civil rights and political equality. Du Bois had a different view on this issue if compared to Washington because of their different early lifestyles. Unlike Washington, Du Bois was born free in the North and he did not receive any harsh experienced as a slave himself and was also grew up in a predominantly white area. In his writings, it is obvious that he thought that the most important thing that the black should gain was to have the equality with whites. Regarding the issue of the voting rights, Du Bois strongly believed that it is important for black people to agitate to get the right to vote. He also believed that the disfranchisement of poor men could mean the catastrophe of South’s democracy (Painter 157). In his writing with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he wrote that it was significant for blacks to exercise the right to vote because there were whites that wanted to put them back in their inferior position—and it was
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. ...
Booker T. Washington thought that Blacks should earn their respect gradually after getting an education and becoming business man of the industrial world. W.E.B Du Bois was more of demanding it and he also thought they should try everything they could to earn the respect they needed. Although Booker and W.E.B had there differences, Booker's strategy was more appropriate for the time period and that W.E.B wanted the Blacks to make some sacrifices in order to achieve there goals.
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.
When Booker T. Washington speeches the Atlanta Compromise, it is still a big step to talk about equality and social problems of the white and black races, even though it is after the Civil War. However, it is necessary to agitate to reach complete liberty and social change ultimately, which address Washington to have an oblique approach to express the purpose of the speech. He announces his intention of the black race, simultaneously, he wants to make the Southern white men feel relief and relaxed about talking about it. It supports the reason he speaks meek and polite all the time, not to offend the white audience. He insists that the importance of having a business is greater than getting a social equal for African-Americans, which makes
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois were very important African American leaders in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They both felt strongly that African Americans should not be treated unequally in terms of education and civil rights. They had strong beliefs that education was important for the African American community and stressed that educating African Americans would lead them into obtaining government positions, possibly resulting in social change. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had similar goals to achieve racial equality in the United States, they had strongly opposing approaches in improving the lives of the black population. Washington was a conservative activist who felt that the subordination to white leaders was crucial for African Americans in becoming successful and gaining political power.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, a big question was left: what does the future look like for freed slaves in America? For so long - 246 years, since the first African slave arrived in Virginia in 1619 - Southern African Americans were forced into slavery. However, in 1856, as a result of the Union’s win in the American Civil War and the determination of many, they were finally free - at least legally. The Civil War left a big dent on the South and tension was rising between whites and blacks. In the meantime, African Americans needed help, or else they would fall into the trenches of the American society once again. This was a time of crucial social change for Southern blacks, and the effects of Reconstruction on white and black race relations in America are still apparent and alive today.