Booker T. Washington was an educator, and one of the most influential black leaders of his time. Washington preached to the black people that of self-help, being united as one race and accommodation to the whites, would make white people accept blacks. He encouraged blacks to submit to racial discrimination at the moment, and focus on proving themselves by doing hard
Although Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois had opposing philosophies on ending racial and economic inequalities for African Americans, W.E.B Dubois emphasized the need for direct involvement in civil rights and political reform. His philosophies and strategies, in my opinion are what helped lead the road towards African Americans gaining their rights. Booker T. Washington ridiculed W.E.B Dubois’s strategy of fighting for their civil rights. Washington believed that the best way to obtain their rights is to prove to whites that African Americans can be productive members of society by means of “keeping their mouths shut, working, and saving, and buy a house.” Dubois refuted his philosophies by stating that there is no point in saving for
He helped with finding the American Negro Academy, which was the first formal black group in America. From 1910 to 1934, Du bois was the most prominent leader of the NAACP. W.E.B Du bois soon confronted Booker T Washington, he never spoke negative about Washington’s hard work, he just opposed his ideas he was trying to enforce. Du bois feels Washington is trying to syndicate the Negros and settle for less.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave and worked as a janitor to get through school. Whereas W.E.B. Du Bois was born in the North and faced very little discrimination, and had an easier time getting into College. They were well educated, and the only difference between them was how they were raised in different environments. Both were on the journey to improve African American’s social and political status in America. However, they had different methods for getting what they wanted.
The Crisis focuses on both proving yourself and demanding rights; The various advertisements found throughout the article, show that they offer opportunities for blacks to become successful. During this time, Washington and DuBois were two figures who were promoting black excellence in their own ideas. Washington believed that African Americans should create a separate society where they are not dependents on whites; they would create their own economy, towns and even learn in a vocational school but most importantly, Washington didn’t believe that fighting for citizenship was necessary, that It would come on its own. His ideas were popular among whites from both north and south because Washington emphasized on how whites could work together, but be separate. DuBois on the other hand, believed that
Booker T. Washington, born on April 5th, 1856 in Virginia, was an American educator and civil rights activist during the First Reconstruction era. Washington served as a highly intelligent aid to several US presidents, adhering to more conservative approaches to gain black progress. Washington founded Tuskegee Normal University in Alabama, offering the opportunity for African Americans to receive a collegiate degree primarily in the fields of teaching, carpentry, and construction. Washington gained immense fame from his Atlanta Compromise Speech in 1895, expressing the use of education and entrepreneurship to gain black progress instead of directly fighting the Jim Crow Laws of segregation. Washington gained popularity with the white population; however, the African American community is not truly fond of Washington’s conservative actions nowadays.
Washington was a surely understood dark teacher. He was a dark American, naturally introduced to subjugation, who trusted that prejudice would end once blacks procured helpful work aptitudes and demonstrated their financial quality to society, was leader of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. He encouraged mechanical instruction for African-Americans so that they would pick up appreciation from the whites. Washington regularly disregarded separation. He was anxious about the possibility that that blacks that requested equivalent rights would make malevolence in the middle of themselves and white Americans.
It’s almost as if Du Bois wanted to have a one sided argument with Washington in favor of Du Bois’s strategy. If the audience of Du Bois’s Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others essay, obtained or possessed knowledge of Washington’s program, it will be known that Du Bois solely highlighted the negatives of Washington’s program. Given that Du Bois was the first African American to receive a Ph.D from Harvard, there is solid creditability behind Du Bois supporting details. Du bois’s argument for African American youth being educated is creditable. Du Bois stated, “They advocate, with Mr. Washington, a broad system of Negro common schools supplemented by thorough industrial training…Washington's insight cannot see that no such educational system ever has rested or can rest on any other basis than that of the well-equipped college and university…demand for a few such institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders” (Du Bois
"If you want to lift up yourself, lift up someone else," this was Booker T. Washington's method of a social, political, and economic upbringing. He believed in the theory of accommodationism, in which the basis of the thory was to accept the racial status quo and provide manual labor to climb the social, economic, and political ladder to receive equal status. On the contrary, DuBois pointed out that the approach provided by Washington "produced on disfranchisement, "civil inferiority," and a "withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro" (White, 460). Moreover, DuBois claimed that Washingtons approach "shifted the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro shoulders" (White , 460). DuBois's criticism of Washingtons'
To help educate blacks, he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which specialized in teaching practical skills such as farming, carpentry, and shoemaking. As has been noted “In all things social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. Not race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.” Not all African American agreed with Washington’s approach to civil rights. A new generation of leaders emerged, and they took a harder line toward civil rights.
He believed that the best way to help African-Americans was by educating them. He became a teacher and headed and developed Tuskegee Institute. These men had very different childhoods, but as adults they both strove for the betterment
Achieving African American Equality Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were two of the most influential advocates for African American equality during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Blatty, 1). Although both men ultimately had the same goal, their methods for achieving African American equality were remarkably different. To begin, the men had conflicting ideas about what constituted as African American equality. Booker T. Washington argued that the accumulation of wealth and the ability to prove that Blacks were productive members of society would be the mark of true equality for African Americans (Painter, 155).
However Booker T. Washington believed in having a more skillful education, consisting of learning how to trade, mastering agriculture skills and more things one would need to get a job. However, W.E.B DuBois also put many efforts to achieve equal rights towards African Americans which Booker T Washington put on hold. Booker T Washington’s plan was to make it so that “Blacks would [have to] accept segregation and discrimination but their eventual acquisition of wealth and culture would gradually win for them the respect and acceptance of whites”. This vision that Booker T Washington had “practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro race”. W.E.B commented on this process saying it was an attempt, “to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings.”
In the mid-to-late 1800s the African American community faced opposition and segregation. They were segregated from the whites and treated as second-class citizens. This segregation was caused in part by Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws separated races in schools, hospitals, parks, public buildings, and transportation systems. Both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had ideas on how to improve African American lives, Washington believed in starting at the bottom and working up whereas Du Bois had an opposing viewpoint he saw starting from the bottom as submissive and believed African Americans should hold important jobs in order to demand equal treatment.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century. They both had the same intent with their thought but they came from two different backgrounds so it was hard for them to have agreement. Booker T. Washington spent his early childhood in slavery. W. E. B. DuBois grew up both free and in the North. Ergo, he did not experience the harsh conditions of slavery or of southern prejudice he grew up with white Americans and even attended predominately white schools.
