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“Compare and contrast the ideas and positions of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. DuBois. Critically evaluate the strength and weaknesses of each.”

Black History 140B
Professor Katungi
3-12-03

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin Country, Virginia in 1856. One of our nations most powerful black educators; he illustrated his belief in the dignity of work. He was very skilled in politics and influential for both black and white communities. “There was no period of my life that was devoted to play.” He expressed his concept of hard work was the cornerstone of his social philosophy. Booker T. became a principle and guiding force behind Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institution in Hampton, Alabama during 1881. He felt that industrial education was a way out from the horrible sharecropping and debt. His plan also wanted to achieve self-employment, land ownership and small businesses. “Yet one has the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”, being a personal quote from Booker T. at the Atlanta Compromise address in 1895. His major role was to influence the area of race relations and black leadership. He attacked racism and secretly founder of many anti-segregationist activities. Booker T. wanted to help black Americans rise up from the economic slavery, that had held them down long after they were legally free citizens. As being a dominant figure in black public affairs from 1895 until his death, he spoke heavily against lynching and worked towards making “separate” facilities more “equal”. Being a confident advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft was a very important role he acting in. No presidential, political appointments were allowed, unless they were cleared through him. In 1900, Booker T. Washington was a founder of the National Negro Business