Compare And Contrast Washington And Dubois Push For Civil Rights

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two influential leaders in the late 19th and 20th century America. Despite many similarities in background, Dubois and Washington had conflicting viewpoints of the economic and social successes of African Americans. Their opposing philosophies can be found through study and discussion of their literary works. A notable disagreement can be found in Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise” speech and DuBois’s excerpt, Critique of Booker T. Washington, from his publication The Souls of Black Folk.

DuBois believed in equality now. Dubois believed in not waiting for it. Washington believed in industrial education while DuBois believed in higher education. DuBois and Washington both believed

Regardless, they were able to aid in ending discrimination and received equal standing in education, labor, acquiring of land, etc.. If it had only been Du Bois fighting for equality, then he would have achieved the fight for equality sooner. On the contrary, Du Bois only provided one view to how African Americans were being treated; Washington had a friendlier approach. This may be due to his fear of being lynched or placing African Americans in a harsher situation than they already were. Washington seemed more methodical—he was thinking about African Americans having the full rights of the 14th and 15th amendments. At the same, he was also concerned about the consequences of his speech, and if it angered the whites more than it relieved the situation they were all facing.

DuBois, on the other hand, criticizes Washington's approach is his book, Soul of Black Folks. DuBois argues that Washington’s approach to achieving racial equality is based on industrial education, southern compromise, and the silencing of civil rights. However, he believes that Washington should have taken his ideas further to engender racial equality. DuBois believes that African Americans should fight for their rights by forcing the south to accept the mistakes they made in the past and strive to enforce the principles of the founding fathers who said that “all men are created equal.” DuBois also argues that African Americans must freely voice their opinion so that they can bring about social change.

(DuBois Pg. 300) Dubois also agrees that opening a technical school would also improve their conditions through hard work, education, and self-sufficiency within their existing

The fact that W.E.B. founded an organization shows how passionate he was. According to history.com, Dubois also taught at Wilberforce University and Atlanta University, and chaired the Peace Information Center” (history.com). You can see how much education mattered to W.E.B. Not only did he get himself a quality education, but he also taught and universities to give other people a chance to get a quality education. W.E.B. was a very educated and intelligent man that played a huge role in the effort towards racial equality.

The problem of black leadership between 1895 and 1915 was raised by the celebrated debate between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. For two decades Washington established a dominant tone of gradualism and among blacks, while W.E.B. Dubois introduced a different approach. Both Washington and DuBois wanted the same thing for blacks, first-class citizenship, but their approaches for obtaining it differed.  Washington focused more on the method of advising blacks to start at the bottom, obtain an education, and work their way up to citizenship. DuBois, on the other hand, believed that political action and academic education would be the means to achieve full citizenship rights for black Americans.

Du Bois published “Talented Tenth”. Du Bois believed that African Americans had been preforming demeaning work for far too long. He urged African Americans with classical liberal arts educations to fulfill their rightful place in positions of leadership and power. Du Bois provides statistics of the many respectable occupations held by African Americans to back his belief and claims that, “These figures illustrate vividly the function of the college bred Negro. He is, as he ought to be, the group leader, the man who set the ideals of the community where he lives, directs its thoughts and heads its social movements” (Du Bois).

In response to this, W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington proposed their own plan to fight for equality. Although both plans have their advantages, Dubois’ plan offers a more effective method to the path of equality because it establishes Blacks into American Society and did not make them

Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.

As mentioned earlier, Du Bois most prominently stressed education as a means to earn political power. Du Bois argued that political power could be accumulated through social change facilitated by the Talented Tenth (Painter, 155). In other words, Du Bois thought it was important for the most educated African Americans to lead the masses of the African American race out of oppression. Thus, W.E.B Du Bois stressed the importance of education and political action above all

Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were both well-known black leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Muhummad, K., 2013). They were both instrumental in the educational development of African Americans and advocates of civil rights. Although they shared a few similar goals when it came to civil rights for African Americans, due to the vast difference in their upbringing, Washington and DuBois’ strategy for blacks gaining those rights were different (Muhummad, K., 2013). Whereas Washington was a bit more passive, DuBois was more outspoken and confrontational. No matter the differences in their approach, the end goal they had in mind was the same.

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.”

Washington believed in working simple labor jobs and starting from the bottom and progressing up in order to gain the respect necessary to achieve racial equality, Du Bois believed in not submitting to lesser occupations and demanding racial equality. Washington says that the key to prosperity is through learning to dignify common labor. Whereas Du Bois states that “Becoming a gospel of work and money to such an extent as apparently almost completely overshadow the higher aims of life.” “Common Labor” is viewed by Washington as the only way to make progress toward a higher quality life, however, Du Bois views “common labor” as a social setback. Washington’s views can be summed up, almost completely, in the following quote “It is at the bottom of life we must begin, not the top.”

He believed that African American economic gains were not secure unless there was political power to safeguard them. “I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing…" (Washington 234). They both believed in equality. Although one believed in used force and military movements the other used writing to reach his audience. While there were many points of contention between Washington and DuBois, there were similarities in their philosophies as well.