Booker T. Washington And WEB Du Bois

During the late 1800s the rights of all african americans were restricted by laws created by the local government. Such laws segregated african americans from whites, and restricted their right to vote and prevented them from gaining their constitutional rights. Booker T Washington was a strong minded African American man who believed in the rights of all African Americans. He was born in Virginia on April 5, 1856. Booker T washington was influential to the nation due to both his knowledge and thinking because he fought for the equality of African Americans by asking blacks to accept that they were subordinate to whites and that African Americans should show whites that they are useful and skillful. By doing so, they are showing whites that
they deserve a place in society where blacks are respected by everyone, including whites.
Booker T Washington is a strong advocate for African Americans because he acknowledges that everyone has to begin somewhere, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity filling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin and not the top” (Washington). It does not matter the status of one’s job or how important a job is because everyone has to start at the bottom. Status does not make a difference when it comes to hard work. Washington states that, “In all things that are purely social we can be separated as fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington). Although whites and African Americans are segregated and considered different, they all have the same rights making them equal according to the constitution. Booker T Washington accepts that whites are the superior race compared to African Americans and because of this they do not receive the same opportunities although the constitution provides them the same rights.Washington asks for African Americans to give up the need of, “first political power, second insistence of civil rights, and third a higher education of negro youth” (Du Bois). African Americans should not fight for these three things because, he believes they are unnecessary for life and are not as important then working on themselves by concentrating on their commercial and educational advance. As a result of achieving this, African Americans would progress and be relieved from destitution and indigence. In order to do this Booker T Washington’s technique relied on making a progressed African American community before they fight whites for equally. Washington believed blacks should have an education but, thought a higher education was nonessential. Booker T Washington believed it was a waste of time studying tasks that can not be used in one’s daily life. He motivated African Americans to learn how to handle actual life matters in the general public along with the people. Washington wanted blacks to prove to whites that they deserve their privileges by mastering helpful skills and an necessary education. His hard work eventually pulled off when he established Tuskegee University in 1881, a historically black university. Booker T Washington thought hard work was the number one priority over civil rights.
One whose Ideas countered Booker T Washington was WEB Du Bois.
Du Bois’ method toward the problems of African Americans contradicted from Washington’s. Unlike Washington, Du Bois believed in a higher education for African Americans. He thought blacks could not gain status in life without it because Du Bois believed they deserved the same opportunities that whites were given just to be fair. Du Bois disagrees with Washington’s opinions because he believes, “In fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we do not all work on fighting great wrongs” (Du Bois). WEB Du Bois believes that African Americans should not be obliged to work so rigorously to be accepted into the community by whites. Instead, they should automatically be welcomed and handled as equals because political rights were already granted to them by the constitution. Du Bois strongly believed that blacks should be given their constitutional authority, rights and an higher education because without those things they will always remain second-class compared to whites. WEB Du Bois’ ideas countered those of Booker T Washington’s but, the ideas of Washington were more realistic and reasonable than those of Du Bois making Washington the stronger advocate for African Americans. With the use of Washington’s Ideas the nation changed because with hard work, blacks were eventually noted as of equal status to whites. This is significant to me because, no matter what race a person is everyone should be treated equally and with respect and I appreciate how Washington believes people should be respected by their skill and
merit.
Booker T Washington was very innovated. When African Americans were all freed from slavery and given the right to vote there was still racial discrimination in the United States. Blacks and whites were segregated leaving African Americans the inferior race. Booker T Washington was a strong advocate for African Americans and he impacted the nation greatly through his ideas on how to deal with the segregation blacks faced because he believed that African Americans should work hard to earn reverence from whites and other races instead of demanding rights they have not worked for. These ideals were very significant to the nation however, was contradicted by WEB Du Bois who believed blacks should of been given immediate rights. In spite of these divergent judgements Booker T Washington made the stronger case.