...Einstein This quote typifies the conditions in which both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were challenged with. Not only were they two exemplary examples of African American greatness, but they proved themselves to be two of the greatest leaders of the early twentieth century regardless of race. However, as Aristotle once said “people fear what they don’t understand, and hate what they can’t conquer” thus steps were taken to dismantle their “movements” at all costs. It was because of this the two were commonly pitted against each other in media outlets to create a rift in their collective following. Not that there was any truth to their “rivalry”, contrarily many times they admitted to seeking the same result for the black race. They were seen as rebels to society because of their hopes to replace the oppressed psyche of our race with one of self-efficacy and prosperity. They perpetuated the notions of equality, diligence, self betterment, unity and accountability to name just a few of the platforms they spoke on which so affected our race during their time. They arguably had the potential to rectify three hundred years of anguish and repression had they been able to follow their directives unimpeded, but now we’ll never know. Although both Washington and Dubois had very similar intentions for the black race, they came from entirely different backgrounds and thus had different views on society. Booker T. Washington was born April 5, 1856 in Hale’s Farm, Virginia. He was...
Words: 2401 - Pages: 10
...Booker T. Washington “Up from Slavery” I detected a message in the first chapter of “Up from Slavery” other than the horrors of slavery, even though that message was painfully clear. The other message that I detected is that a shallow and indulgent existence deprives a person of developing rugged individualism, character and common sense. I felt this because of the sentences, “the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did. The hurtful influences of the institution were not by any means confined to the Negro.” “The slave system on our place, in a large measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white people. My old master had many boys and girls, but not one, so far as I know, ever mastered a single trade or special line of productive industry.” The slaves seemed to possess a deeper sense of self and spirituality and realized that kindness toward other human beings and honor were more rewarding than material things. I was very surprised and awed by the fact that even though the slaves were provided with abhorrent living conditions and often endured immense cruelty at the hands of their masters, they still felt love and kindness towards them and they showed compassion towards the whites when they themselves fell upon hard times. One passage that confirms the importance of honor and the feeling of compassion is “In fear of “Yankee” invasions, the silverware and other valuables were taken from the “big house,” buried...
Words: 1142 - Pages: 5
...the Proposals of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois United States History 1828 - 1914 Instructor Stewart King Clackamas Community College February 7, 2012 Accommodation vs. Integration In March of 1895, Booker T. Washington delivered his now famous Atlanta Compromise Speech. In brief, Washington proposed that blacks accept segregation and focus on getting jobs rather than demanding equality. He also proposed that blacks concentrate on learning trades and how to work with their hands – not necessarily in becoming book smart. Perhaps even more central to his message, Washington argued that if blacks focused on equality they would never make it anywhere in society. In short, Washington’s policy was one of accommodation and not rocking the boat. (Washington) Washington was very clear about what he felt black intentions should be, stating that blacks should only be seeking opportunity – not for the right to integrate with white society. He wanted white society to see the good in all black people, and not as a threat to their way of life. Eight years later, W.E.B. offered a critique of Washington’s proposal. While DuBois respected Washington as a black leader, he felt that his policy of accommodation was holding back the black race. Contrary to Washington, DuBois felt that "the right to vote," "civic equality," and "the education of youth according to ability" were essential for African American progress. (DuBois) DuBois felt if blacks...
Words: 751 - Pages: 4
...22/25 “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...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...1903 W.E.B Dubois was one of the greatest African American leader who aspired to better the quality of black lives. W.E.B Dubois wanted all African Americans to become book smart because he thought that was the only blacks could succeed in life. W.E.B Dubois believed that African Americans should be able to read, write. W.E.B Dubois also thought that African Americans should be entitled to organized education. With both literacy and organized education, W.E.B Dubois thought it would result in higher IQ’s in African Americans. W.E.B Dubois believed that if African Americans were more intelligent that they would more comparable to the whites. All of this was called W.E.B Dubois gradualist political strategy. Unlike Booker T. Washington, W.E.B...
Words: 921 - Pages: 4
...Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois were two great leaders of the black community in the 19th and 20th century. Both of these men were for equality. However, they had their differences. Booker T. Washington disagreed on the strategies for black social and economic progress. Booker T. Washington was a very influential black leader during his of period of living. He was for long- term equality, he was thinking down the road. Washington wanted blacks to accept discrimination, not forever, but just for the time being. He felt that they should work within the system concentrate more so on elevating themselves in order to get out of the racial hole. One way to elevate themselves would be through hard work. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills. He felt that this would be a way to get whites to respect them, and it would be a path to African Americans being accepted by whites as citizens. Washington gave the Atlantic Compromise Speech in 1895, which was very famous. His main focus was to get African Americans to hush and work within the system. This guy was the first African American invited into the White House....
Words: 482 - Pages: 2
...Jeff Fonou Professor Shearin English 101 24 October 2014 The Negro Education W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington were great leaders to the African American population during their time. Although they both agreed on the progression of black communities and the Negro education; they strongly disagreed on the type of education blacks should receive, strategies to achieve economic prosperity, and the blacks’ social standing in society. Both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois advocated for the advancement of education in black communities but they had different theories. Washington preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation. Washington’s theory of education developed as a result of the path he took in acquiring an education. He believed blacks should get an industrial education based on their living conditions and economic needs. On the other hand W.E.B Dubois focused on a more liberal; intellectual based style of education. DuBois believed in the "the talented tenth" of the black population who, through their intellectual accomplishments, would rise up in society and lead the black masses. Dubois stated Washington's strategy would serve only to perpetuate white oppression. According to Washington, blacks had to start from the bottom and work their way up in society. He postulated that through industrial education blacks would not only be able to work for themselves but also know how to properly perform the tasks needed. Through this they...
Words: 627 - Pages: 3
...The twentieth-century debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois is one of the most well-known. Washington and DuBois wanted to improve the lives of African Americans and challenge the systems of racial prejudice and oppression. However, they had different opinions and approaches on how to promote a better life. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois both had significant roles in the movement. Booker T. Washington believed that the best path for African Americans was to attend school. Washington heard about the Hampton and when he finally arrived, he felt for the first time of what it was like to be a man instead of property. Students could attend school and also work. “Has not the negro boy or girl as good a right to study French grammar and instrumental music as the white youth?” He answered yes; however, he believes that the current condition, at that time, needed...
Words: 431 - Pages: 2
...November 2014 Du Bois’ and Washington: The Rivalry Both W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington were great African American leaders and writers during the beginning of the 20th century. Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery” provides a great depiction of his experience with slavery and he also expresses his views on education and ways to enhance the citizenship of blacks in society. W.E.B Dubois’ Souls of Black Folk exemplifies the contradictions of the South during that time and he also criticizes Booker T. Washington’s views on racial uplifting and education concept. Now the question stands as follows: Was W.E.B Dubois’ criticism towards Washington unfair or accurate? Well, Dubois’ criticisms towards Washington was both accurate and unfair, but mostly accurate. Up From Slavery depicts Booker T. Washington as both an accommodationist and a realist whom tries to strategize ways for blacks to make it out the struggle even though race relations were at its lowest point at the time. The autobiography also describes in detail his gradual and steady rise from a slave child during the Civil War, to the trials and tribulations he had to conquer to attain an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools such as the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and to helping black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up out of the gutter. Washington was certainly a major figure...
Words: 1282 - Pages: 6
...African American studies know about the ambitious rivalry between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBouis. This rivalry between two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century gave birth to many debates and dissension about which leader actually offered a better way for black people to advance in American society back then. I personally viewed Booker T. Washington’s beliefs about racial equality as somewhat…“colonized”. I believe his ideas were too ground in the white agenda that was going on in that era. I believe W.E.B DuBois ideas were better for the improvement of African American people in American society. Of these two great men, the first to come along was Booker T. Washington. He was a reformer, an educator and one of the most influential black leaders of his time. He preached the philosophy of racial solidarity, self-help and accommodation. He pushed for black people to accept the vicious discrimination that they were going through for the time being and instead concentrate on advancing themselves through material prosperity and hard work....
Words: 855 - Pages: 4
...Two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th century and 20th century, W.E.B Dubois and Booker T. Washington both had varying views on how to solve the racial issues in America. Washington wanted black people to slowly be integrated into the white society to start at the bottom and gain their way to the top, while DuBois wanted the change to happen as soon as possible he wanted black people to have the rights that he believed they deserved from the very beginning. Booker T. Washington was an educator, reformer and one of the most influential people of his time. He preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity, and accommodation. He urged black people to accept discrimination for the time being and elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills, and he believed this would win the respect of whites, and lead African Americans being fully accepted as citizens and integrated into all strata of society. Booker T. Washington idea of how to receive racial equality was a slow moving machine he wanted black people to work from the bottom and eventually once accepted by white people...
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...for African-American’s to feel accepted. In the south after the U.S. Army left, whites reasserted control and two leaders stepped forward, each with their own ideas on how to attain equality. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, both were highly educated men. Booker T. Washington was perhaps more famous, having had dinner with President Theodore Roosevelt. Washington had dealt with suppression his entire life, having been born a slave in Virginia. With an insatiable thirst for more from life, he attended a night school where he learned. Using what he learned he went on to become administrator at a trade school. The Tuskegee Institute was a school in Alabama with an African-American student body and taught trades useful in the work force to young African-American’s. The Tuskegee Institute rang throughout with Washington’s idea on how to push for civil rights, being that working alongside segregation blacks could train themselves and learn equal rights in time with social stature. However, not all black leaders agreed with him. W.E.B. DuBois was a powerful leader with powerful ideas. He strongly encouraged all blacks to demand immediate equal rights and the right to vote. W.E.B. DuBois believed the right to vote should not half to be earned. Having grown up in Massachusettes, DuBois never had to go through slavery, and graduated from Harvard with a Ph.D. in History. He lead the Niagara Movement with other intelligent black men,...
Words: 441 - Pages: 2
...Contributions to Black Nationalism in the United States Critically discuss the contributions of both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois to the idea of Black nationalism in the United States. What were the major obstacles they faced in their articulation of the black Nationalist ideology? Booker T. Washington “was an American political leader, educator and author” who proved to be one of the most dominate figures in African American history in the United States (Booker, par. 1). William Edward Burghardt Du Bois “was a noted scholar, editor, and African American activist…[who] sought to eliminate discrimination and racism” (.. During the late 19th and early 20th century Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two great men who significantly influenced the idea of Black Nationalism in the United States. Though they both wanted to see an America where the Negro was treated with proper respect and equality, their views on how to obtain these noble goals contrasted one another. The ideology of DuBois and Washington were so completely different that people became subjected to following the doctrine of one or the other. With the knowledge that only one could be the “spokesman” for the race the two began a bitter battle to control the Black Nationalism ideology. Amid the competition against one another, both men still had to face other obstacles such as racism in order to further the goals of blacks of the period. Even though the two men had differing opinions on the...
Words: 4768 - Pages: 20
...races were separated in many aspects: education, welfare, health, culture etc. They even deprived them of some civil rights they own being citizens like voting. Until 1964 these laws were governed and you can say helped maintain the gap between the races(Cope 2010). Booker T Washington believed that equality could be achieved through vocational education. Basically what he believed was the blacks would be accepted by the whites if they showed them they could be as literate and socially acceptable as they were. Instead of forcing and protesting for equal rights he urged blacks to focus on education and their farming and work ethics. ("Booker T Washington", 2012) WEB Dubois believed in full political, civil and social rights for African Americans in 1903, Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk. The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois's best-known book. It has also been one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois criticized Booker T. Washington. Washington was a well-known black educator. He urged industrial education for African-Americans. He also founded the Tuskegee Institute. (The Tuskegee Institute provided industrial training to African-Americans.) Washington...
Words: 817 - Pages: 4
...mainstream America. Booker T. Washington was brought up with a different upbringing then most slaves during the 1800s; as he would describe as “up from slavery”. Even though he was born a slave, he had a better chance of “equal access” and equality in main stream America. He had a chance to gain an education part time during his younger years as well as working. Booker T, believed the best way to ensure progress and peace was,”for the whites to respect the blacks desire for improved economic opportunities and for blacks to respect the whites desire for social separation of the races.” I agree with this ideology because everyone was getting a piece of the cake. Negros was getting the equal opportunities, they were fighting for since day one, and whites were getting the opportunity to be isolated from the black race. But we didn’t get what we where aiming for, because main stream America was afraid, afraid of the challenge, and what we were capability of. After Booker T. graduated with honors from Hampton Institute, he changed his views of progress, to industrial education, accommodation of white supremacy, and self-help. He urged blacks to accept dimcrimination for the time and being concrete on evalating our- selves through hard work. He also believed in working with our hands, and not our brain. He felt this would win the respect of whites and lead blacks to be fully accepted as an equal citizen in society. I disagree. “Cast You Buckets Where They is” was Booker T’s new anthem...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
