Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois were two of the most important civil rights leaders of their time. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery, but he rose to become one of the most respected educators and activists in the United States.
W. E. B. Du Bois was also a well-known civil rights leader, but he believed that Booker T. Washington’s methods were too gradual and that African Americans needed to demand more immediate change. Although they had different approaches, both Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois made significant contributions to the civil rights movement in America.
Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 into slavery in Virginia. After the Civil War, he attended school at the Hampton Institute, where he learned how to be a teacher. In 1881, Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute, which became a leading center of education for African Americans.
Washington believed that African Americans should focus on improving themselves through education and economic advancement. He felt that this would eventually lead to civil rights progress. Washington’s approach was gradual, but it was successful in gaining support from many white Americans.
W. E. B. Du Bois was born in 1868 in Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, where he became interested in civil rights issues. Du Bois believed that African Americans needed to take a more active approach to civil rights. He felt that Booker T. Washington’s methods were too gradual and that African Americans needed to demand more immediate change.
Du Bois was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was an important civil rights organization that fought for equality through legal channels. Du Bois also wrote many books and articles about civil rights issues.
Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois were two of the most important civil rights leaders of their time. They both made significant contributions to the civil rights movement in America, but they had different approaches. Booker T. Washington’s gradual approach was successful in gaining support from many white Americans, while W. E. B. Du Bois believed that African Americans needed to take a more active approach to civil rights. Regardless of their differences, both Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois were important figures in the fight for civil rights in America.
For the period from 1870 to 1920, the Washington method was more effective and appropriate, whereas Du Bois approach had a greater Martin Luther King vibe. In terms of political influence, both had an equivalent impact on African-Americans, but Washington always seemed to have the upper hand in white politics. While Washington’s ideas and aims are excellent in education for the majority of African-Americans, Du Bois is recognized for earning genuine respect for the African-American community among whites.
Booker T. Washington was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Washington strove to uplift the black race as a whole by stressing education and economic advancement. W. E. B. Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and essayist.
He is famously known for being one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois felt that Booker T. Washington’s ideas about education and assimilation were too conservative and accommodationist. Booker T. Washington was born a slave in 1856 on a plantation in southwestern Virginia. He attended Hampton Institute, a historically black college, and then earned a degree from Wayland Seminary (now Virginia Union University).
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican ethnographer and religious reformer, preached that individuals can achieve success through hard work. The NAACP was the most significant organization in the United States for advocating civil rights for African-Americans. In his book Negro Folk Songs (1903), WEB Du Bois urged Black Americans to get involved in politics. Because only when African-Americans gain high-profile black political spokesmen will they be able to acquire rights.
Booker T. Washington, on the other hand, claimed that African Americans should concentrate on gaining an education and proving themselves to be a valuable asset to society. Booker T. Washington felt that if African Americans proved their worth to white America then whites would be more likely to sympathize with their cause and grant them some civil rights.
In 1895 Booker T. Washington gave a speech at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition which came to be known as the “Atlanta Compromise”. Booker T. Washington argued that it was more important for African Americans to gain economic independence than political power. He urged blacks to focus on becoming educated and vocational in order to make themselves employable and self-sufficient.
Both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had very different ideas about how African Americans should go about attaining civil rights. Du Bois felt that African Americans needed to be politically active and Booker T. Washington felt that they should concentrate on becoming educated and vocational.
In the end, their differing views led to a rift between the two men which lasted until Booker T. Washington’s death in 1915. After Booker T. Washington’s death, W.E.B Du Bois became more active in the civil rights movement and helped to organize protests and marches which eventually led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
When Washington stated that people can obtain their fundamental rights only by throwing them away, Du Bois responded with great vehemence: “No! We have not yet had a period of time when we could say that the Negro will be able to gain his reasonable rights without first having those reasonable rights taken from him”.
Du Bois also criticizes the erosion of democratic principles, as well as growing social classes disparities. The political demands Du Bois calls for go even further; he wants fundamental transformation in order for African-Americans to continue “season after season.”
Booker T. Washington promoted the idea of gradualism which held that African Americans should focus on economic advancement before political and social equality. Booker T. Washington was one of the most influential African American figures of his time, he was born into slavery but became a leading educator and influential spokesman for blacks in the post-civil war era.
He believed that African Americans should concentrate on vocational education and enter the industrial workforce. He also urged blacks to be Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of self-help and accommodation with white supremacy won broad support among whites, including many northerners who opposed civil rights for blacks.
