The Effectiveness of Martin Luther King Jr, as Opposed to Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and Malcom X

2037 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Why were booker t. washington's ideals on desegregation better than web dubois

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...

... middle of paper ...

..._and_freedom/>.

"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>

Show More
Related

  • Comparing W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Why Some Black Activists Rejected the Approach of Martin Luther King to Civil Rights

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King led the boycott. turned out to be an immediate success, despite the threats and violence against white people. A federal court ordered Montgomery buses. desegregated in November 1956, and the boycott ended in triumph. King led several sit-ins, this kind of movement was a success.

    Read More

  • Ida B. Wells, Booker T, Washington, and W.E.B Dubois

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • W.E.B Du Bois vs. Booker T Washington

    2086 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.... ...

    Read More

  • Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBoise

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Leader of the Civil Rights Movement

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    In late 1955, Dr. King was elected to lead his first public peaceful protest. For the rest of the year and throughout all of 1956, African Americans decided to boycott the Montgomery bus system in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks. After 382 days of protest, the city of Montgomery was forced to lift the law mandating segregated public transportation because of the large financial losses they suffered from the protest. King began to receive notice on a national level in 1960. On October ...

    Read More

  • W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. ...

    Read More

  • Of Booker T Washington And Others Summary

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Booker T. Washington Defense

    1745 Words  | 4 Pages

    Washington was able to secure a position as principle of a new school for African Americans in Alabama. The lessons he learned personally at Hampden Washington incorporated into the curriculum at Tuskegee, much to the chagrin of his 24/7 brick-making, day-laboring pupils, who mistakenly thought they were going to receive a good education. (But this method worked for Booker T., thus it will work for them, or get out, was his motto.) His marked hostility toward the black church is more a reaction to what Booker feels is an unnatural Enthusiasm (in contrast to the austere Northern Protestantism in which Washington was raised), than it is a condemnation of his own

    Read More

  • Compare Martin Luther King's Approach To The Civil Rights Movement

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    He believed in black nationalism; which meant that the African American should “control the politics, economics and social philosophy within the African American community”. Malcolm X felt that marching, protesting, and singing was just a Hollywood act and would never amount to nothing. He stated “today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging and the African American needed a revolution however it could be bloody” (The Ballot or The Bullet (1964)). At the end of his speech he reminded his followers with these words “It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death.” His viewpoints were totally opposite of Martin Luther King,

    Read More

  • Booker T Washington Analysis

    1531 Words  | 4 Pages

    Washington’s stance for social separation and economic acceptance with certain restraints. It is easier to ease into change rather than directly change completely. I would have pushed more for social acceptance with less inferior stance for African Americans and also feel that one must start from the bottom and like yeast when making bread, rise to the top. In closing Dr. Booker T. Washington’s stance was made with best intention to advance the African American race. He continued to advance the race by his actions, his university, and his mentorship until his death. For that I say thank you Mr. Booker Taliaferro

    Read More

  • Booker T Washington

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    Booker T. Washington was a man beyond words. His perseverance and will to work were well known throughout the United States. He rose from slavery, delivering speech after speech expressing his views on how to uplift America's view of the Negro. He felt that knowledge was power, not just knowledge of "books", but knowledge of agricultural and industrial trades. He felt that the Negro would rise to be an equal in American society through hard work. Washington founded a school on these principles, and it became the world's leader in agricultural and industrial education for the Negro. As the world watched him put his heart and soul into his school, Tuskegee Institute, he gained great respect from both the white and black communities. Many of the country's white leaders agreed with his principals, and so he had a great deal of support. Booker T. Washington was a great man. He put his own needs aside in order to build the reputation of an entire race. He didn't do it by accusing and putting blame on others, but instead through hard work. Booker T. Washington cleared the way for the black community to fully enter the American society.

    Read More

  • The Influence of Martin Luther King Jr.

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of the struggles include “civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954.” The Montgomery bus boycott happened on “December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks. who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus” she was arrested. Later, the Supreme Court ruled “segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956.” Works Cited History.com-History Made Every Day.

    Read More

  • Montgomery Bus Boycotts: Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blacks walked miles to work, organized carpools, and despite efforts from the police to discourage this new spark of independence, the boycotts continued for more than a year until in November 1956 the Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery bus company must desegregate it's busses. Were it not for the leadership of Rosa Parks and Jo Ann Robinson, and the support the black community through church congregations, these events may have not happened for many years to come.

    Read More

  • The Role of African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement

    2574 Words  | 6 Pages

    Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson, 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, 1987. Print.

    Read More

More about The Effectiveness of Martin Luther King Jr, as Opposed to Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and Malcom X

Open Document