Dubois and Washington

W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington

In the late 19th and 20th century a way for the improvement of problems facing Black Americans was paved by two great leaders of the black community, W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. Both felt that blacks needed a sense of unity and self-pride to rise from their low social status. Though they shared similar ideas, their strategies for accomplishing these goals were very different. While DuBois thought that education was most important for blacks to learn, Washington believed blacks should accept their status and work in agriculture and industry to achieve industrial wealth.

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery on April 5, 1856, in a rural area in southwestern Virginia to a slave mother and a white father. He received his education from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and Wayland Seminary. He returned to Hampton as a teacher and in 1881 was made leader of Tuskegee Institute. William Edward Burghardt DuBois was born a free man on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Alfred DuBois and Mary Silvina Burghardt DuBois. He received his education from Fisk University, Harvard College, and the University of Berlin. DuBois became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895.

Washington played a very important role in black politics. He won extensive support with liberal whites as well as in the black community. He became associated with top national leaders in politics, philanthropy, and education. Washington influenced a “go slow” accommodationism. He believed that confrontation would not be good for the outnumbered

blacks. The only way to overcome extreme racism in the end was to cooperate with supportive whites. He believed that African Americans should accept the sacrifice of political power, higher education, and civil rights for the youth that were in the present system. Washington believed that blacks should improve themselves...