Attitude of Booker T. Washington and Web Dubois to the Civil Rights Movement

DBQ

In the Civil Rights Movement of the 1900 s the semi-conservative strategies of Booker T. Washington proved to be a more appropriately developed plan for the gaining of African American equality, the reduction of racial discrimination, and in dealing with the poverty situation of the Black Americans. Contrary to Washington s conservative views, the radical assumptions made by the civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois proved to an inconceivable alteration to the American society, in that DuBois desired his principles become instantaneously incorporated into the American way of life. DuBois believed that all Black Americans should indeed from the moment of their liberation have at their disposal the right to vote, civic equality and ability to run for public office, and the rightful education of the Black American youth according to his intellectual ability. DuBois commented that without these three self held desires that all Black Americans are to be made a servile caste, . Booker T. Washington contested however that the Black American could only receive the prize of social equality through the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. Washington also subscribed to the belief that Black Americans should be taught a basic skill to earn themselves a position in the rapidly expanding American work force. Washington believed this would reduce the poverty rate among the Black Americans and would encourage the students to pursue further education. The beliefs of Booker T. Washington although hounded by scrutiny of critics calling Washington his races largest detriment, still proved to be the most adherent path for the progression of Black American equality.

The civil revolution of the 1900 s produced an opportunity for men to make a positive change in American society. Booker T. Washington was one such man whom took advantage of this opportunity and produced his path for the upcoming equality of the Black American. Washington provided motivational propaganda in the form of the Atlanta Compromise Address, in the address Washington made a plight to the southern white Americans to support the newly achieved freedom of the Black Americans. He was certain if the whites supported the Black Americans in their struggle to achieve equality, the whites would continue to be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. Washington believed that through the support of the white southerners, the Black Americans could slowly reverse the tides that had rolled against them only fifty years before. Washington stated in his address

Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories.

Booker T. Washington believed that Black Americans should indeed gain ultimate racial equality, however Washington believed this would not be a quick process. Instead of preaching to the Black American population the objective of instantaneous equality, Washington focused on the objective of helping all Black Americans achieve a certain level of technical ability. Booker T. Washington in his thoughts, determined that if the Black Americans could obtain a level of acceptance in society as responsible individuals, the remaining steps to gaining total racial equality would be a much easier incorporation into the American society. Washington developed this theory himself through his own story; Booker T. Washington was born into slavery, and liberated during the American civil war effort. In 1872 Washington enrolled in the Hampton Institute, a vocational training institute for young Black Americans. After Washington s graduation in 1875, Booker returned in 1881 to found the Tuskegee Institute which would become responsible for Booker T. Washington s reputation rising as a spokesperson for the African American Community. Booker T. Washington having developed the Tuskegee Institute had produced a manor in which young African Americans could obtain vocational positions for sustenance, and through the development of the American view of the Black American as responsible individuals, the discrimination of the Black American race could possibly be diminished.

In 1888 there emerged a man named W.E.B. DuBois, DuBois was a radical clone of his early predecessor Booker T. Washington. The ideas of DuBois however may have been much too radical for the Black American situation. W.E.B. DuBois participated in the launch of the Niagara Movement in 1905, this led to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the NAACP in 1909. DuBois viewed the Black American situation as a crisis at best, and believed the all Black Americans should, from the very moment of their liberation, insist continually, in season and out season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, . This demand would not, and was not excepted by the still sour community of the southern whites. To the southern whites it was if the Black Americans should get this special treatment simply because they are Black Americans and they ask for it. It was no surprise that this radical racial recombination never materialized, there was also very little done by W.E.B. DuBois to ensure the progression of his beliefs. Instead DuBois disgusted by the American peoples rejection of his ideas left the country and denounced his American citizenship.

In the civil rights movement of the 1900 s the semi-conservative strategies of Booker T. Washington proved to be a more appropriately developed plan for the gaining of African American equality, the reduction of racial discrimination, and in dealing with the poverty situation of the Black Americans. The views of Booker T. Washington provided the Black Americans of the time to provide themselves with the image of responsible individuals, making the acceptance of the Black American social equality a more palatable taste for the White American community.