The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a novel that tells the somber story of a runaway slave named Cora who struggles to find a comfortable life in a white-supremacist America whilst being pursued by an infamous slave catcher named Ridgeway. However, during her possession, she is rescued and spends months at an amicable black habitation in Indiana, where she meets with intelligent and philosophical members, such as Lander and Mingo. These characters are closely based on Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois, two historically-significant figures who played an immense role in the integration of African American individuals into a reconstructed, slave-free society. Booker T. Washington was an influential African American man who had a great impact on the undesirable policies against blacks of the Reconstruction Era, the Gilded Age, and the …show more content…
Another crucial figure to the African American movement of the 19th and 20th centuries was W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois was born in 1868 in Massachusetts as a free black person, whose father abandoned him at two years of age (“W.E.B DuBois”). After he graduated high school, he attended many prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Fisk, and Wilberforce (“W.E.B DuBois”). Following this, he was hired as a professor for the University of Pennsylvania, where he “uncovered how slavery still affected the personal lives of African Americans” (“W.E.B DuBois”) by conducting a series of studies in former slave states and examined the results with students, later inspiring him to write the essay “The Strivings of the Negro People” for a large newspaper. To further amplify his point, he wrote dozens of books regarding the mistreatment of African Americans in society. Eventually, he earned a job as a summer school professor at Tuskegee University, the same school where Washington was
Dr. Maulana Karenga was a black civil rights activist. He studied at Las Angeles community college and became active in the civil right movement shortly after. He created the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa. He was a very smart man, he earned two doctoral degrees and authored several books on African studies. He looked up to many famous civil rights activists of his time including W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King Jr.
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois was born February 23, 1863 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a town with about 5000 inhabitants with only fifty African Americans. In his youth, Dubois did some newspaper reporting for his small town. Dubois graduated valedictorian from his high school. Following high school, DuBois attended Fisk University, a black liberal college in Nashville. After two years at Fisk University, DuBois transferred to Harvard his junior year. In 1890, he gradated cum laude from Harvard and was one of the six graduation speakers. He continued his education by pursuing graduate studies at the University of Berlin in history and economics. DuBois received his master of arts in 1891 and in 1895 received his doctorate in h...
and challenges to African Americans from 1910 until about 1930. Du Bois felt that Americans
To understand the viewpoint of W.E.B Dubois and his argument for having a well-educated African American population, his own background and life experience of the struggle to be African and American must be considered. DuBois is born in the north in Massachusetts where the so-called Negro problem paralyzing 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.
William Edward Burghard Du Bois and Booker Taliaferro Washington were both civil rights leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Du Bois was born as a freeman in Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard University and became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. . Washington was born as a slave in Virginia, he worked in the salt mines while attending school, and later attended the Hampton Institute to learn trade skills. Although Du bois and Washington had the same goal of achiving equality, they sharply disagreed on strategies concerning voting rights, social change, education, and the role of the black man in the South, Washington had a gradual approach as opposed to Du Bois who wanted immediate equality.
“If there is anybody in this land who thoroughly believes that the meek shall inherit the earth they have not often let their presence be known” (Du Bois). This is a quote from African American rights activists W.E.B. Du Bois. It’s a good example of how he views the situation at this time, and how he works mentally as a rights activist. This was a very dangerous time for the African American population in America. During this time period, there were two very well-known men who protested for rights for the African American community. Their names were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Both had very different views, but were both doing it as a way to help the African American community. However, for this time period, W.E.B. Du Bois’ philosophies
Two of the most influential people in shaping the social and political agenda of African Americans were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois, both early twentieth century writers. While many of their goals were the same, the two men approached the problems facing African Americans in very different ways. This page is designed to show how these two distinct thinkers and writers shaped one movement, as well as political debate for years afterward.
The writings of Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois postulate a formula for the advancement of African Americans. Each formula can be traced to its advocate’s respective life experience. While their individual formulas differ in the initial priorities and the necessary steps described, when viewed collectively as points in a progression, those points at times intersect and then diverge, and at other times they are divergent and then intersect.
The Similarities and Differences of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois’s Views 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
W.E.B. DuBois was born on the twenty-third of February in 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Great Barrington, Massachusetts was a free man town, in this African- Americans were given opportunities to own land and to live a better life. He attended Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee from 1885 to 1888. While attending this college this was the first time DuBois has ever been to the south and had to encounter segregation. After graduating from F...
Women should not have the chance for an academic education. They should be trained to cook, clean, and take care of children. What better way would a woman help society? Would she help her neighbor more by teaching them mathematics they will never use or by helping their neighbor raise children? This is similar to what Booker T. Washington claimed about African Americans. He stated that the African Americans should attend vocational schools rather than receive an academic education so they could better further social change. W.E.B DuBois had a different approach to further social change by stating that some African Americans should go to academic schools, while others had trades, and some were considered fools who cannot learn. I believe that all children have the ability to learn whether they are black, brown, honeysuckle, or blue. Children all learn in different ways and in order to teach all children we must discover what way each child learns best. John and Evelyn Dewey demonstrate learn by doing and say that is the best approach to learning. I believe they are correct in some aspects. I will attempt to explain my philosophy on the best way to teach all children regardless of race or gender.
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. ...
Just because the color of one’s race should not exemplify disgrace .W.E.B Dubois was born on february 23,1868 in Great Barrington,Massachusetts.1885 Dubois moved to Nashville tennessee and Attended Fisk University .Dubois encountered the Jim Crow laws.That was the 1st time he experienced racism against African Americans,That made him Want to study the troubles of African Americans. 1895 Dubois became the 1st African American to earn a p.h.d degree from Harvard University. 1905 Dubois was a founder and general secretary of the Niagara movement an African American protest group of scholars and professionals.1945 Dubois wrote the famous”An appeal to the world “ He
The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,