Washington vs. DuBois Essay Name_________________ American Studies I
Critical Thinking: Read Differing Views on Civil Rights and Reforms. Also read and take notes on the research that was provided. Complete the DBQ process. Use the information to write an essay that addresses the following question: Which leader, Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. DuBois, was more successful in achieving civil rights for African Americans in the early 1900’s? What methods did the most effective leader choose to implement? Why did they choose those methods? How did the public react to them? Remember to read the rubric and use details and examples in your essay. Process: 1. Read the question and underline key words, eras, names, issues, etc. Determine the required task. 2. Brainstorm the facts you know about the topic and time period. Write them down. 3. Analyze the documents. · Identify type of document. · Indicate author and time period written – what do you know about them? · Identify a point of view. · Write notes in margin. · Look for relationships (similarities/differences) among the documents and group accordingly. 4. Structure your response based on task required in essay – outline answer. · support/disagree 5. Write an organized essay. · Introductory paragraph – Develop a thesis in response to the question: What will you prove in the essay? · Body paragraphs – Develop information citing supporting evidence from the documents and outside historical information (You must use 2 additional sources) · Concluding paragraph 6. Essay needs to be submitted to Classroom no later than Tuesday, May 21, 2019. 10 points will be deducted for each day the essay is late. A works cited page also needs to be completed and submitted through classroom utilizing easybib.
Booker T. & W.E.B. The Debate between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington
Two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century were W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. However, they sharply disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress. Their opposing philosophies can be found in much of today's discussions over how to end class and racial injustice, what is the role of black leadership, and what do the 'haves' owe the 'have-nots' in the black community. Booker T. Washington, educator, reformer and the most influential black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise and thrift. This, he said, would win the respect of whites and lead to African Americans being fully accepted as citizens and integrated into all strata of society. W.E.B. Du Bois, a towering black intellectual, scholar and political thinker (1868-1963) said no--Washington's strategy would serve only to perpetuate white oppression. Du Bois advocated political action and a civil rights agenda (he helped found the NAACP). In addition, he argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called "the Talented Tenth:" "The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education then, among Negroes, must first of all deal with the "Talented Tenth." It is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the worst." At the time, the Washington/Du Bois dispute polarized African American leaders into two wings--the 'conservative' supporters of Washington and his 'radical' critics. The Du Bois philosophy of agitation and protest for civil rights flowed directly into the Civil Rights movement which began to develop in the 1950's and exploded in the 1960's. Booker T. today is associated, perhaps unfairly, with the self-help/colorblind/Republican/Clarence Thomas/Thomas Sowell wing of the black community and its leaders. The Nation of Islam and Maulana Karenga's Afrocentrism derive too from this strand out of Booker T.'s philosophy. However, the latter advocated withdrawal from the mainstream in the name of economic advancement
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W. E. B. DuBois
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Founding members of the Niagara Movement, formed to assert full rights and opportunity to African Americans. "We
want full manhood suffrage and we want it now.... We are men! We want to be treated as men. And we shall win."
W.E.B. DuBois is on the second row, second from the right.
WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DUBOIS was very angry with Booker T. Washington. Although he admired
Washington's intellect and accomplishments, he strongly opposed the position set forth by Washington in
his Atlanta Exposition Address. He saw little future in agriculture as the nation rapidly industrialized.
DuBois felt that renouncing the goal of complete integration and social equality, even in the short run, was
counterproductive and exactly the opposite strategy from what best suited African Americans.
Early Life and Core Beliefs
The childhood of W. E. B. DuBois could not have been more different from that of Booker T. Washington.
He was born in Massachusetts in 1868 as a free black. DuBois attended FISK UNIVERSITY and later became
the first African American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard. He secured a teaching job at Atlanta
University, where he believed he learned a great deal about the African American experience in the South.
DuBois was a staunch proponent of a classical education and condemned Washington's suggestion that
blacks focus only on vocational skills. Without an educated class of leadership, whatever gains were made
by blacks could be stripped away by legal loopholes. He believed that every class of people in history had
a "TALENTED TENTH." The downtrodden masses would rely on their guidance to improve their status in
society.
Political and social equality must come first before blacks could hope to have their fair share of the
economic pie. He vociferously attacked the Jim Crow laws and practices that inhibited black suffrage. In
1903, he published THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, a series of essays assailing Washington's strategy of
accommodation.
The Niagara Movement and the NAACP
In 1905, DuBois met with a group of 30 men at Niagara Falls, Canada. They drafted a series of demands
essentially calling for an immediate end to all forms of discrimination. The NIAGARA MOVEMENT was
denounced as radical by most whites at the time. Educated African Americans, however, supported the
resolutions.
Four years later, members of the Niagara Movement formed the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP). This organization sought to fight for equality on the national
front. It also intended to improve the self-image of African Americans. After centuries of slavery and
decades of second-class status, DuBois and others believed that many African Americans had come to
accept their position in American society.
DuBois became the editor of the organization's periodical called THE CRISIS, a job he performed for 20
years. The Crisis contained the expected political essays, but also poems and stories glorifying African
American culture and accomplishments. Later, DuBois was invited to attend the organizational meeting for
the United Nations in 1946.
As time passed, DuBois began to lose hope that African Americans would ever see full equality in the
United States. In 1961, he moved to Ghana. He died at the age of 96 just before Martin Luther King Jr. led
the historical civil rights march on Washington.
Booker T. Washington http://www.ushistory.org/us/42d.asp At the dawn of the 20th century, nine out of ten African Americans lived in the South. Jim Crow laws of segregation ruled the land. The Supreme Court upheld the power of the Southern states to create two "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" societies with its 1896 PLESSY V. FERGUSON opinion. It would be for a later Supreme Court to judge that they fell short of the "equal" requirement. Although empowered to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment, POLL TAXES,LITERACY TESTS, and outright violence and intimidation reduced the voting black population to almost zero. Economically, African Americans were primarily poor sharecroppers trapped in an endless cycle of debt. Socially, few whites had come to accept blacks as equals. While progressive reformers ambitiously attacked injustices, it would take great work and great people before change was felt. One man who took up the challenge was BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. Founding Tuskegee Institute Born into slavery in 1856, Washington had experienced racism his entire life. When emancipated after the Civil War, he became one of the few African Americans to complete school, whereupon he became a teacher. Believing in practical education, Washington established a TUSKEGEE INSTITUTEin Alabama at the age of twenty-five. Washington believed that Southern racism was so entrenched that to demand immediate social equality would be unproductive. His school aimed to train African Americans in the skills that would help the most. Tuskegee Institute became a center for agricultural research. The most famous product of Tuskegee was GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER. Carver concluded that much more productive use could be made of agricultural lands by diversifying crops. He discovered hundreds of new uses for sweet potatoes, pecans, and peanuts. Peanut butter was one such example. Washington saw a future in this new type of agriculture as a means of raising the economic status of African Americans. The Atlanta "Compromise" In 1895, Washington delivered a speech at the ATLANTA EXPOSITION. He declared that African Americans should focus on VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. Learning Latin and Greek served no purpose in the day-to-day realities of Southern life. African Americans should abandon their short-term hopes of social and political equality. Washington argued that when whites saw African Americans contributing as productive members of society, equality would naturally follow. For those dreaming of a black utopia of freedom, Washington declared, "Cast down your bucket where you are." Many whites approved of this moderate stance, while African Americans were split. Critics called his speech the Atlanta Compromise and accused Washington of coddling Southern racism.
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Still, by 1900, Washington was seen as the leader of the African American community. In 1901, he published his autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY. He was a self-made man and a role model to thousands. In 1906, he was summoned to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. This marked the first time in American history that an African American leader received such a prestigious invitation. Despite his accomplishments, he was challenged within the black community until his death in 1915. His most outspoken critic was W. E. B. DuBois