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W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.. Who Were They?

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W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.. Who Were They?

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This article gives brief insight on the background of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington's upbringing. Readers can gain an understanding of the impact their childhood had on their beliefs and actions in regard to education and African American rights. Through this article readers can see just how different the two men were, but how they both influenced education and society today.

Washington was born into slavery, so he grew up surrounded by injustice and experienced it every day.

Dubois was born into a free African American family and diverse community. He was not really exposed to racial injustice till he was at university.

Washington believed that if African Americans could become more economically independent and intelligent, then that would help bridge the gap between whites and blacks, and eventually help put an end to slavery.

W.E.B. Du Bois' only hope was for the freedom of African American slaves in the United States, and for it to happen quickly. He firmly believed that education and civil rights were the only way to make quality a reality.

Washington was a man of physical action through fundraising for institute's and organizations

W.E.B. Du Bois wrote articles and other works on the conditions of Black Americans

W.E.B. Du Bois did later on establish the Niagara political group in hopes of taking political action

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Division Among Two Creating Division Among Many

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Division Among Two Creating Division Among Many

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This article provides insight on the individual beliefs of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois. This article exposes the division that was caused as a result of their differing beliefs.

Booker T. Washington "urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity."

W.E.B publicly disagreed with Washington and stated that he felt Washington's approach would only further white oppression.

W.E.B wanted to take political action and a civil rights agenda. He then founded the NAACP and 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.”

Their contradicting views divided African Americans into two separate wings: "conservatives" were supporters of Washington and the "radicals" were considered his critics.

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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 influentional black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accomodation. 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.

Links/Readings for Du Bois & Washington

This interesting 1965 article by writer Ralph McGill in The Atlantic combines an interview with Du Bois shortly before his death with McGill's analysis of his life. In the interview, Du Bois discusses Booker T., looks back on his controversial break with him and explains how their backgrounds accounted for their opposing views on strategies for black social progress

Here is the full text of this classic in the literature of civil rights. It is a prophetic work anticipating and inspiring much of the black consciousness and activism of the 1960s. In it Du Bois describes the magnitude of American racism and demands that it end. He draws on his own life for illustration- from his early experrience teaching in the hills of Tennessee to the death of his infant son and his historic break with the 'accomodationist' position of Booker T. Washington..

This archival section of The Atlantic magazine online offers several essays by Du Bois (as well as Booker T. Washington). In particular, in "The Training of Black Men" he continues his debate with Washington.

This site on Du Bois offers a lengthy biographical summary and a bilbiography of his writings and books.

A summary of Booker T.'s life, philosophy and achievements, with a link to the famous September 1895 speech, "the Atlanta Compromise," which propelled him onto the national scene as a leader and spokesman for African Americans. In the speech he advocated black Americans accept for awhile the political and social status quo of segregation and discriminaton and concentrate instead on self-help and building economic and material success within the black community.

Here is the full text of Booker T. Washington's fine autobiography, published in 1900.

"Signs of Progress Among the Negroes," "Awakening of the Negro" written around the turn of the century can be accessed from this web page; scroll down to 'Washington.'

Washington was the first black to be invited to the White House for dinner with a President. The invitation came from Theodore Roosevelt and this article, written at the time by a Howard University professor, deals with this event and conveys the very powerful image of Washington in the eyes of ten million black Americans during the turn of the century.

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The Debate Between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington

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W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington sharply disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress.

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W.E.B Du Bois vs Booker T. Washington and Their Experiences 

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W.E.B Du Bois vs Booker T. Washington and Their Experiences 

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It is evident that their upbringing, and educational experiences greatly impacted their view on society, and their approach to achieving equality. Both brought very specific ideals and plans to the table, and not everyone had one specific man they agreed completely with. What these two men did achieve though was the kickstart of conversations and actions taken towards achieving social and educational equality.

Hampton University, one of the first all black universities, was where Washington adopted his belief that through the education of "trades" work, equality could eventually be achieved.

Du Bois attended Fisk University, another one of the first HBCUs, and then graduated with his PhD from Harvard.

Du Bois' exposure to the vast difference between his educational experience and that of white Americans is what drove him to believe "equality by means of education was a priority."

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The Great Debate: Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois

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This timeline reflects the founding of some of the world’s oldest historically Black colleges and universities, otherwise known as HBCUs. In 1867, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Alabama State […]

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Washington was only allowed access to schooling after working from 4am to 9am every morning at a salt mine.

He studied at Hampton University starting in 1872, then went to Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C

In 1881, Washington became principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute where he would work till he passed away.

On September 18, 1895, he gave his most well-known speech where he, controversially, said that he felt it was better that whites and blacks remain separated, so long as African Americans were still granted "access to economic progress, education, and justice under U.S. courts"

In 1901, Washington became the first African American invited into the White House, beginning his relationship with President Roosevelt. Despite the backlash received, Roosevelt viewed Washington as the brilliant man he was and continued to seek council from him.

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Booker T. Washington's Parents and Early Life

Booker Taliaferro Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in a hut in Franklin County, Virginia. His mother was a cook for the plantation's owner. His father, a white man, was unknown to Washington. At the close of the Civil War, all the enslaved people owned by James and Elizabeth Burroughs-including 9-year-old Booker, his siblings, and his mother-were freed. Jane moved her family to Malden, West Virginia. Soon after, she married Washington Ferguson, a free Black man.

Booker T. Washington's Education

In Malden, Washington was only allowed to go to school after working from 4-9 AM each morning in a local salt works before class. It was at a second job in a local coalmine where he first heard two fellow workers discuss the Hampton Institute, a school for formerly enslaved people in southeastern Virginia founded in 1868 by Brigadier General Samuel Chapman. Chapman had been a leader of Black troops for the Union during the Civil War and was dedicated to improving educational opportunities for African Americans.

In 1872, Washington walked the 500 miles to Hampton, where he was an excellent student and received high grades. He went on to study at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C., but had so impressed Chapman that he was invited to return to Hampton as a teacher in 1879. It was Chapman who would refer Washington for a role as principal of a new school for African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama: The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, today's Tuskegee University. Washington assumed the role in 1881 at age 25 and would work at The Tuskegee Institute until his death in 1915.

It was Washington who hired George Washington Carver to teach agriculture at Tuskegee in 1896. Carver would go on to be a celebrated figure in Black history in his own right, making huge advances in botany and farming technology.

Booker T. Washington Beliefs And Rivalry with W.E.B. Du Bois

Life in the post- Reconstruction era South was challenging for Black people. Discrimination was rife in the age of Jim Crow Laws. Exercising the right to vote under the 15 Amendment was dangerous, and access to jobs and education was severely limited. With the dawn of the Ku Klux Klan, the threat of retaliatory violence for advocating for civil rights was real.

In perhaps his most famous speech, given on September 18, 1895, Washington told a majority white audience in Atlanta that the way forward for African Americans was self-improvement through an attempt to "dignify and glorify common labor." He felt it was better to remain separate from whites than to attempt desegregation as long as whites granted their Black countrymen and women access to economic progress, education, and justice under U.S. courts:

"The wisest of my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than to spend a dollar in an opera house."

His speech was sharply criticized by W.E.B. Du Bois, who repudiated what he called "The Atlanta Compromise" in a chapter of his famous 1903 book, "The Souls of Black Folk." Opposition to Washington's views on race inspired the Niagara Movement (1905-1909). Du Bois would go on to found the NAACP in 1909.

Because of Washington's outsized stature in the Black community, dissenting views were strongly squashed. Du Bois and others criticized Washington's harsh treatment of rival Black newspapers and Black thinkers who dared to challenge his opinions and authority.

Books By Booker T. Washington

Washington, a famed public speaker known for his sense of humor, was also the author of five books:

· "The Story of My Life and Work" (1900)

· "Up From Slavery" (1901)

· "The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery" (1909)

· "My Larger Education" (1911)

· "The Man Farthest Down" (1912)

Booker T. Washington: First African American in the White House

Booker T. Washington became the first African American to be invited to the White House in 1901, when President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to dine with him. It caused a huge uproar among white Americans-especially in the Jim Crow South-and in the press, and came on the heels of the publication of his autobiography, "Up From Slavery." But Roosevelt saw Washington as a brilliant advisor on racial matters, a practice his successor, President William Howard Taft, continued.

Booker T. Washington Death And Legacy

Booker T. Washington's legacy is complex. While he lived through an epic sea change in the lives of African Americans, his public views supporting segregation seem outdated today. His emphasis on economic self-determination over political and civil rights fell out of favor as the views of his largest critic, W.E.B. Du Bois, took root and inspired the civil rights movement. We now know that Washington secretly financed court cases that challenged segregation and wrote letters in code to defend against lynch mobs. His work in the field of education helped give access to new hope for thousands of African Americans.

By 1913, at the dawn of the administration of Woodrow Wilson, Washington had largely fallen out of favor. He remained at the Tuskegee Institute until congestive heart failure ended his life on November 14, 1915. He was 59.

Washington left behind a vastly improved Tuskegee Institute with over 1,500 students, a faculty of 200 and an endowment of nearly $2 million to continue to carry on its work.

Sources

Booker T. Washington. Biography.com
The Debate Between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Frontline.
Jim Crow Stories: Booker T. Washington. Thirteen.org.
Booker T. Washington. Britannica.

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Booker T. Washington - Biography, W.E.B. Dubois & Facts | HISTORY

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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute and later formed the National Negro Business League. Although Washington clashed with black leaders such as W. E. B.

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

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

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In this article we see the primary source response of W.E.B Du Bois to Washington's statement. Du Bois discusses the confusion and shock his statements produced. He acknowledges the aspects of Washington's intentions and attempts that he agrees with and felt were well meaning, but then goes on extensively about the flaws he feels overshadow all of who Washington is and what his plan presents.

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

The most influential public critique of Booker T. Washington's policy of racial accommodation and gradualism came in 1903 when black leader and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois published an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others." DuBois rejected Washington's willingness to avoid rocking the racial boat, calling instead for political power, insistence on civil rights, and the higher education of Negro youth.

Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others

From birth till death enslaved;

in word, in deed, unmanned!

Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

BYRON

Easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington. It began at the time when war memories and ideals were rapidly passing; a day of astonishing commercial development was dawning; a sense of doubt and hesitation overtook the freedmen's sons,-then it was that his leading began. Mr. Washington came, with a single definite programme, at the psychological moment when the nation was a little ashamed of having bestowed so much sentiment on Negroes, and was concentrating its energies on Dollars. His programme of industrial education, conciliation of the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights, was not wholly original; the Free Negroes from 1830 up to wartime had striven to build industrial schools, and the American Missionary Association had from the first taught various trades; and Price and others had sought a way of honorable alliance with the best of the Southerners. But Mr. Washington first indissolubly linked these things; he put enthusiasm, unlimited energy, and perfect faith into this programme, and changed it from a by-path into a veritable Way of Life. And the tale of the methods by which he did this is a fascinating study of human life.

It startled the nation to hear a Negro advocating such a programme after many decades of bitter complaint; it startled and won the applause of the South, it interested and won the admiration of the North; and after a confused murmur of protest, it silenced if it did not convert the Negroes themselves.

To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington's first task; and this, at the time Tuskegee was founded, seemed, for a black man, well-nigh impossible. And yet ten years later it was done in the word spoken at Atlanta:"In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." This"Atlanta Compromise" is by all odds the most notable thing in Mr. Washington's career. The South interpreted it in different ways: the radicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality; the conservatives, as a generously conceived working basis for mutual understanding. So both approved it, and today its author is certainly the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis, and the one with the largest personal following.

Next to this achievement comes Mr. Washington's work in gaining place and consideration in the North. Others less shrewd and tactful had formerly essayed to sit on these two stools and had fallen between them; but as Mr. Washington knew the heart of the South from birth and training, so by singular insight he intuitively grasped the spirit of the age which was dominating the North. And so thoroughly did he learn the speech and thought of triumphant commercialism, and the ideals of material prosperity that the picture of a lone black boy poring over a French grammar amid the weeds and dirt of a neglected home soon seemed to him the acme of absurdities. One wonders what Socrates and St. Francis of Assisi would say to this.

And yet this very singleness of vision and thorough oneness with his age is a mark of the successful man. It is as though Nature must needs make men narrow in order to give them force. So Mr. Washington's cult has gained unquestioning followers, his work has wonderfully prospered, his friends are legion, and his enemies are confounded. To-day he stands as the one recognized spokesman of his ten million fellows, and one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy millions. One hesitates, therefore, to criticise a life which, beginning with so little has done so much. And yet the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington's career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the world.

The criticism that has hitherto met Mr. Washington has not always been of this broad character. In the South especially has he had to walk warily to avoid the harshest judgments,-and naturally so, for he is dealing with the one subject of deepest sensitiveness to that section. Twice-once when at the Chicago celebration of the Spanish-American War he alluded to the color-prejudice that is "eating away the vitals of the South," and once when he dined with President Roosevelt-has the resulting Southern criticism been violent enough to threaten seriously his popularity. In the North the feeling has several times forced itself into words, that Mr. Washington's counsels of submission overlooked certain elements of true manhood, and that his educational programme was unnecessarily narrow. Usually, however, such criticism has not found open expression, although, too, the spiritual sons of the Abolitionists have not been prepared to acknowledge that the schools founded before Tuskegee, by men of broad ideals and self-sacrificing spirit, were wholly failures or worthy of ridicule. While, then, criticism has not failed to follow Mr. Washington, yet the prevailing public opinion of the land has been but too willing to deliver the solution of a wearisome problem into his hands, and say, "If that is all you and your race ask, take it."

Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition, amounting at times to bitterness, and even to-day continuing strong and insistent even though largely silenced in outward expression by the public opinion of the nation. Some of this opposition is, of course, mere envy; the disappointment of displaced demagogues and the spite of narrow minds. But aside from this, there is among educated and thoughtful colored men in all parts of the land a feeling of deep regret, sorrow, and apprehension at the wide currency and ascendancy which some of Mr. Washington's theories have gained. These same men admire his sincerity of purpose, and are willing to forgive much to honest endeavor which is doing something worth the doing. They cooperate with Mr. Washington as far as they conscientiously can; and, indeed, it is no ordinary tribute to this man's tact and power that, steering as he must between so many diverse interests and opinions, he so largely retains the respect of all.

But the hushing of the criticism of honest opponents is a dangerous thing. It leads some of the best of the critics to unfortunate silence and paralysis of effort, and others to burst into speech so passionately and intemperately as to lose listeners. Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,-criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society. If the best of the American Negroes receive by outer pressure a leader whom they had not recognized before, manifestly there is here a certain palpable gain. Yet there is also irreparable loss,-a loss of that peculiarly valuable education which a group receives when by search and criticism it finds and commissions its own leaders. The way in which this is done is at once the most elementary and the nicest problem of social growth. History is but the record of such group-leadership; and yet how infinitely changeful is its type and character! And of all types and kinds, what can be more instructive than the leadership of a group within a group?-that curious double movement where real progress may be negative and actual advance be relative retrogression. All this is the social student's inspiration and despair.

Now in the past the American Negro has had instructive experience in the choosing of group leaders, founding thus a peculiar dynasty which in the light of present conditions is worth while studying. When sticks and stones and beasts form the sole environment of a people, their attitude is largely one of determined opposition to and conquest of natural forces. But when to earth and brute is added an environment of men and ideas, then the attitude of the imprisoned group may take three main forms, - a feeling of revolt and revenge; an attempt to adjust all thought and action to the will of the greater group; or, finally, a determined effort at self-realization and self-development despite environing opinion. The influence of all of these attitudes at various times can be traced in the history of the American Negro, and in the evolution of his successive leaders.

Before 1750, while the fire of African freedom still burned in the veins of the slaves, there was in all leadership or attempted leadership but the one motive of revolt and revenge,-typified in the terrible Maroons, the Danish blacks, and Cato of Stono, and veiling all the Americas in fear of insurrection. The liberalizing tendencies of the latter half of the eighteenth century brought, along with kindlier relations between black and white, thoughts of ultimate adjustment and assimilation. Such aspiration was especially voiced in the earnest songs of Phyllis, in the martyrdom of Attucks, the fighting of Salem and Poor, the intellectual accomplishments of Banneker and Derham, and the political demands of the Cuffes.

Stern financial and social stress after the war cooled much of the previous humanitarian ardor. The disappointment and impatience of the Negroes at the persistence of slavery and serfdom voiced itself in two movements. The slaves in the South, aroused undoubtedly by vague rumors of the Haitian revolt, made three fierce attempts at insurrection, - in 1800 under Gabriel in Virginia, in 1822 under Vesey in Carolina, and in 1831 again in Virginia under the terrible Nat Turner. In the Free States, on the other hand, a new and curious attempt at self-development was made. In Philadelphia and New York color-prescription led to a withdrawal of Negro communicants from white churches and the formation of a peculiar socio-religious institution among the Negroes known as the African Church, - an organization still living and controlling in its various branches over a million of men.

Walker's wild appeal against the trend of the times showed how the world was changing after the coming of the cotton-gin. By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission. The free Negroes of the North, inspired by the mulatto immigrants from the West Indies, began to change the basis of their demands; they recognized the slavery of slaves, but insisted that they themselves were freemen, and sought assimilation and amalgamation with the nation on the same terms with other men. Thus, Forten and Purvis of Philadelphia, Shad of Wilmington, Du Bois of New Haven, Barbadoes of Boston, and others, strove singly and together as men, they said, not as slaves; as "people of color," not as "Negroes." The trend of the times, however, refused them recognition save in individual and exceptional cases, considered them as one with all the despised blacks, and they soon found themselves striving to keep even the rights they formerly had of voting and working and moving as freemen. Schemers of migration and colonization arose among them; but these they refused to entertain, and they eventually turned to the Abolition movement as a final refuge.

Here, led by Remond, Nell, Wells-Brown, and Douglass, a new period of self-assertion and self-development dawned. To be sure, ultimate freedom and assimilation was the ideal before the leaders, but the assertion of the manhood rights of the Negro by himself was the main reliance, and John Brown's raid was the extreme of its logic. After the war and emancipation, the great form of Frederick Douglass, the greatest of American Negro leaders, still led the host. Self-assertion, especially in political lines, was the main programme, and behind Douglass came Elliot, Bruce, and Langston, and the Reconstruction politicians, and, less conspicuous but of greater social significance Alexander Crummell and Bishop Daniel Payne.

Then came the Revolution of 1876, the suppression of the Negro votes, the changing and shifting of ideals, and the seeking of new lights in the great night. Douglass, in his old age, still bravely stood for the ideals of his early manhood,-ultimate assimilation through self-assertion, and no other terms. For a time Price arose as a new leader, destined, it seemed, not to give up, but to re-state the old ideals in a form less repugnant to the white South. But he passed away in his prime. Then came the new leader. Nearly all the former ones had become leaders by the silent suffrage of their fellows, had sought to lead their own people alone, and were usually, save Douglass, little known outside their race. But Booker T. Washington arose as essentially the leader not of one race but of two,-a compromiser between the South, the North, and the Negro. Naturally the Negroes resented, at first bitterly, signs of compromise which surrendered their civil and political rights, even though this was to be exchanged for larger chances of economic development. The rich and dominating North, however, was not only weary of the race problem, hut was investing largely in Southern enterprises, and welcomed any method of peaceful cooperation. Thus, by national opinion, the Negroes began to recognize Mr. Washington's leadership; and the voice of criticism was hushed.

Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission; but adjustment at such a peculiar time as to make his programme unique. This is an age of unusual economic development, and Mr. Washington's programme naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as apparently almost completely to overshadow the higher aims of life. Moreover, this is an age when the more advanced races are coming in closer contact with the less developed races, and the race-feeling is therefore intensified; and Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races. Again, in our own land, the reaction from the sentiment of war time has given impetus to race-prejudice against Negroes, and Mr. Washington withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens. In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro's tendency to self-assertion has been called forth; at this period a policy of submission is advocated. In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.

In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, -

First, political power,

Second, insistence on civil rights,

Third, higher education of Negro youth,

- and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years. As a result of this tender of the palm-branch, what has been the return? In these years there have occurred:

1. The disfranchisement of the Negro.

2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro.

3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington's teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment. The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic No. And Mr. Washington thus faces the triple paradox of his career:

1. He is striving nobly to make Negro artisans business men and property-owners; but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property-owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage .

2. He insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same time counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority such as is bound to sap the manhood of any race in the long run.

3. He advocates common-school and industrial training, and depreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither the Negro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges, or trained by their graduates.

This triple paradox in Mr. Washington's position is the object of criticism by two classes of colored Americans. One class is spiritually descended from Toussaint the Savior, through Gabriel, Vesey, and Turner, and they represent the attitude of revolt and revenge; they hate the white South blindly and distrust the white race generally, and so far as they agree on definite action, think that the Negro's only hope lies in emigration beyond the borders of the United States. And yet, by the irony of fate, nothing has more effectually made this programme seem hopeless than the recent course of the United States toward weaker and darker peoples in the West Indies, Hawaii, and the Philippines,-for where in the world may we go and be safe from lying and brute Force?

The other class of Negroes who cannot agree with Mr. Washington has hitherto said little aloud. They deprecate the sight of scattered counsels, of internal disagreement; and especially they dislike making their just criticism of a useful and earnest man an excuse for a general discharge of venom from small-minded opponents. Nevertheless, the questions involved are so fundamental and serious that it is difficult to see how men like the Grimkes, Kelly Miller, J.W.E. Bowen, and other representatives of this group, can much longer be silent. Such men feel in conscience bound to ask of this nation three things.

1. The right to vote.

2 Civic equality.

3 The education of youth according to ability.

They acknowledge Mr. Washington's invaluable service in counselling patience and courtesy in such demands; they do not ask that ignorant black men vote when ignorant whites are debarred, or that any reasonable restrictions in the suffrage should not be applied; they know that the low social level or the mass of the race is responsible for much discrimination against it, but they also know, and the nation knows, that relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro's degradation; they seek the abatement of this relic or barbarism, and not its systematic encouragement and pampering by all agencies of social power from the Associated Press to the Church of Christ. They advocate, with Mr. Washington, a broad system of Negro common schools supplemented by thorough industrial training; but they are surprised that a man of Mr. Washington's insight cannot see that no such educational system ever has rested or can rest on any other basis than that of the well-equipped college and university, and they insist that there is a demand for a few such institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders.

This group of men honor Mr. Washington for his attitude of conciliation toward the white South; they accept the "Atlanta Compromise" in its broadest interpretation; they recognize, with him, many signs of promise, many men of high purpose and fair judgment, in this section; they know that no easy task has been laid upon a region already tottering under heavy burdens. But, nevertheless, they insist that the way to truth and right lies in straightforward honesty, not in indiscriminate flattery; in praising those of the South who do well and criticising uncompromisingly those who do ill; in taking advantage of the opportunities at hand and urging their fellows to do the same, but at the same time in remembering that only a firm adherence to their higher ideals and aspirations will ever keep those ideals within the realm of possibility. They do not expect that the free right to vote, to enjoy civic rights, and to be educated, will come in a moment; they do not expect to see the bias and prejudices of years disappear at the blast of a trumpet; but they are absolutely certain that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them; that the way for a people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing themselves; that, on the contrary, Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.

In failing thus to state plainly and unequivocally the legitimate demands of their people, even at the cost of opposing an honored leader, the thinking classes of American Negroes would shirk a heavy responsibility,-a responsibility to themselves, a responsibility to the struggling masses, a responsibility to the darker races of men whose future depends so largely on this American experiment, but especially a responsibility to this nation,-this common Fatherland. It is wrong to encourage a man or a people in evil-doing; it is wrong to aid and abet a national crime simply because it is unpopular not to do so. The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the North and South after the frightful difference of a generation ago ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority, then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement with Mr. Booker T. Washington. We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.

First, it is the duty of black men to judge the South discriminatingly. The present generation of Southerners are not responsible for the past, and they should not be blindly hated or blamed for it. Furthermore, to no class is the indiscriminate endorsement of the recent course of the South toward Negroes more nauseating than to the best thought of the South. The South is not "solid"; it is a land in the ferment of social change, wherein forces of all kinds are fighting for supremacy; and to praise the ill the South is to-day perpetrating is just as wrong as to condemn the good. Discriminating and broad-minded criticism is what the South needs, - needs it for the sake of her own white sons and daughters, and for the insurance of robust, healthy mental and moral development.

To-day even the attitude of the Southern whites toward the blacks is not, as so many assume, in all cases the same; the ignorant Southerner hates the Negro, the workingmen fear his competition, the money-makers wish to use him as a laborer, some of the educated see a menace in his upward development, while others-usually the sons of the masters-wish to help him to rise. National opinion has enabled this last class to maintain the Negro common schools, and to protect the Negro partially in property, life, and limb. Through the pressure of the money-makers, the Negro is in danger of being reduced to semi-slavery, especially in the country districts; the workingmen, and those of the educated who fear the Negro, have united to disfranchise him, and some have urged his deportation; while the passions of the ignorant are easily aroused to lynch and abuse any black man. To praise this intricate whirl of thought and prejudice is nonsense; to inveigh indiscriminately against "the South" is unjust; but to use the same breath in praising Governor Aycock, exposing Senator Morgan, arguing with Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, and denouncing Senator Ben Tillman, is not only sane, but the imperative duty of thinking black men.

It would be unjust to Mr. Washington not to acknowledge that in several instances he has opposed movements in the South which were unjust to the Negro; he sent memorials to the Louisiana and Alabama constitutional conventions, he has spoken against lynching, and in other ways has openly or silently set his influence against sinister schemes and unfortunate happenings. Notwithstanding this, it is equally true to assert that on the whole the distinct impression left by Mr. Washington's propaganda is, first, that the South is justified in its present attitude toward the Negro because of the Negro's degradation; secondly, that the prime cause of the Negro's failure to rise more quickly is his wrong education in the past; and, thirdly, that his future rise depends primarily on his own efforts. Each of these propositions is a dangerous half-truth. The supplementary truths must never be lost sight of: first, slavery and race-prejudice are potent if not sufficient causes of the Negro's position; second, industrial and common-school training were necessarily slow in planting because they had to await the black teachers trained by higher institutions,-it being extremely doubtful if any essentially different development was possible, and certainly a Tuskegee was unthinkable before 1880; and, third, while it is a great truth to say that the Negro must strive and strive mightily to help himself, it is equally true that unless his striving be not simply seconded, but rather aroused and encouraged, by the initiative of the richer and wiser environing group, he cannot hope for great success.

In his failure to realize and impress this last point, Mr. Washington is especially to be criticised. His doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro's shoulders and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs.

The South ought to be led, by candid and honest criticism, to assert her better self and do her full duty to the race she has cruelly wronged and is still wronging. The North-her co-partner in guilt-cannot salve her conscience by plastering it with gold. We cannot settle this problem by diplomacy and suaveness, by "policy" alone. If worse comes to worst, can the moral fibre of this country survive the slow throttling and murder of nine millions of men?

The black men of America have a duty to perform, a duty stern and delicate,-a forward movement to oppose a part of the work of their greatest leader. So far as Mr. Washington preaches Thrift, Patience, and Industrial Training for the masses, we must hold up his hands and strive with him, rejoicing in his honors and glorying in the strength of this Joshua called of God and of man to lead the headless host. But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds,-so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this,-we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them. By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men, clinging unwaveringly to those great words which the sons of the Fathers would fain forget: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creater with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Source: W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago, 1903).

See Also: Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech
Making the Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington Is Invited to Speak
"Equal and Exact Justice to Both Races": Booker T. Washington on the Reaction to his Atlanta Compromise Speech
"Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are": Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise Speech

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The most influential public critique of Booker T. Washington's policy of racial accommodation and gradualism came in 1903 when black leader and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois published an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others."

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Effects upon African American Roles in Engineering and Engineering Technology

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Effects upon African American Roles in Engineering and Engineering Technology

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Despite their incredibly different views, "both men were aware that technological advancement was of foremost importance to the advancement of African Americans." Due to their outspoken natures, Du Bois and Washington were able to stick out and make a stand unlike many other African Americans who came before them attempting to do the same. Through their approaches they gained the confidence and trust of white Americans, therefore receiving a much larger platform than before. This article provides insight on the effects of "the debate upon African American roles in engineering and engineering technology."

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ERIC - EJ905153 - The W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington Debate: Effects upon African American Roles in Engineering and Engineering Technology, Journal of Technology Studies, 2004

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The messages of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois could not have been more diverse. The philosophical rivalry between Washington and DuBois has deep historical roots. To be on the same side fighting for the same purpose, progress, and uplifting of the Black race, these two Black intellectuals harbored radically divergent views on how to assist African Americans to free themselves from their often subhuman conditions. Both men were aware that technological advancement was of foremost importance to the advancement of African Americans. Washington’s (1901)

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Industrial Education for the Negro was a guidebook written by Washington to provide trade skills and resources for African Americans

1895 Washington gave his infamous speech encouraging African Americans to deal with the discrimination for now and basically take what they can get.

The Souls of Black Folks (piece written by W.E.B Du Bois), was Du Bois' critique of Washington's speech

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In 1895 the as the social and political gains of the Reconstruction period were being rolled back for African Americans, Booker T. Washington delivered a now famous speech in which he declared that Blacks should concentrate on vocational training and agricultural pursuits, rather than pursuing full legal and social equality with whites. In The Souls of Black Folks noted intellectual W.E.B. Dubois offered a point-by-point critique of Washington's position, which, he felt was an insufficient response to a situation in which the rights of African Americans were under increasing attack. The terms of this debate would prove to be influential for decades, as various thinkers and leaders imagined and planned ways to improve the situation of African Americans.

Booker T. Washington, 1895-1965

The Negro Problem. New York: J. Pott & Co. 1903. First edition.

This important book from the period contained essays that also present the two men's divergent views on education. Washington's "Industrial Education for the Negro" promoted trades and practical skills as the best way forward for African Americans. By contrast, W.E.B. Dubois' essay "The Talented Tenth" argued that a liberally educated Black elite should guide the way to progress. The ideas and activities of both leaders are implicit or explicit reference points for many of the later books presented in this exhibition. The position of Washington's article in the book and the presence of his photograph as the frontispiece suggests.
W.E.B. Dubois, 1868-1963 The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dodd Mead, 1961. Press copy from the library of J. Saunders Redding.
Besides the essay critical of Washington's views (title), The Souls of Black Folk provides an overview of the difficult situation facing African Americans, one generation after the end of slavery. At this time the right to vote had been neutralized in the southern Unites States, and the sharecropping system kept many southern Blacks in a situation of virtual slavery. Souls may be the most influential African American text of the 20th century. "The color line" i.e. pervasive institutionalized racism would be the problem of the twentieth century, Dubois wrote prophetically.

Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

An Autobiography: The Story of My LIfe and Work. Toronto, Ontario, Naperville, Ill.: J.L. Nicols & Co., 1901. Revised edition.

This work is not as well known as Washington's other autobiographical volume, Up from Slavery, which contains the text of his "Atlanta Compromise "speech. However, both emphasize the importance of hard work, thrift and other Victorian values in the author's "rise" from slavery. These are the values Washington offers as an example to Blacks and whites, in his gradualist vision of Black progress. Many southern whites approved of the accomodationist stance Washington laid out here and elsewhere, including some who were opposed to voting rights and social equality for Blacks.

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Issues and Debates in African American Literature

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In 1895 the as the social and political gains of the Reconstruction period were being rolled back for African Americans, Booker T. Washington delivered a now famous speech in which he declared that Blacks should concentrate on vocational training and agricultural pursuits, rather than pursuing full legal and social equality with whites.

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Graduated from Fisk and Harvard University to then move on to teaching at Atlanta University in 1897

While teaching rigorous courses at the university, he published his works The Souls of Black Folks and Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture

Du Bois fought for equal rights not compromise, unlike Washington

"Du Bois was a founder of the Niagara Movement, a collective of civil rights activists who drew up a statement of principles opposed to the Atlanta Compromise."

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In the decades after Emancipation, African Americans continued to work for the betterment of their communities. Education, which had been denied to so many during the era of slavery, was seen as a pathway to full citizenship and true freedom.

Many schools were established in former slaves states specifically for the education of African American men and women. Among the educational institutions founded after the Civil War were colleges of the Atlanta University Center: Atlanta University - 1865 and Clark College - 1869 (now Clark Atlanta University), Morehouse College - 1867, Morris Brown College - 1881, Spelman College - 1881, and seminaries that would later be the foundation for the Interdenominational Theologial Center.

W.E.B. Du Bois was an important figure in the development of African-American education and the philosophy of the 20th century freedom movement. A Fisk Univeristy and Harvard educated historian and sociologist, Du Bois joined the faculty of Atlanta University in 1897. He distinguished himself and the programs at AU by conducting rigorous sociological studies, hosted conferences, and published extensively about the impact of slavery and class on the oppression of black people. While at Atlanta University, Du Bois penned his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folks, which laid bare the impact of slavery and race on American society. He also founded and edited the journal, Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture.

Du Bois did much to earn his reputation as a leading educator, and a radical spokesperson for African-Americans. Du Bois opposed the "Atlanta Compromise," articulated in a speech given in 1895 by Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute. This compromise traded the good behavior of Southern blacks for basic educational and economic freedoms from whites. DuBois felt strongly that blacks should be fighting for equal rights, not compromise.

Du Bois may be best known for the concept of the "talented tenth." He believed that full citizenship and equal rights for African Americans would be brought about through the efforts of an intellectual elite; for this reason, he was an advocate of a broad liberal arts education at the college level. This was in direct opposition to Washington's emphasis on industrial education.

Du Bois was a founder of the Niagara Movement, a collective of civil rights activists who drew up a statement of principles opposed to the Atlanta Compromise. Also he was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and edited its journal, Crisis, for many years.

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W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of Black Education

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In this 150th anniversary year of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary year of the March on Washington, interest in black political activity during the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement is at a high point. What may not be included in these celebrations is the constant struggle, and triumphs, of African-Americans in the intervening years.

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References

Blatty, D. (2023, July 6). W.E.B. Du bois and Booker T. Washington had clashing ideologies during the civil rights movement. Biography. https://www.biography.com/activists/web-dubois-vs-booker-t-washington

Booker T. Washington. (1998, July 20). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Booker-T-Washington

Booker T. Washington. (2009, October 29). HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/booker-t-washington

The debate between W.E.B. Du bois and Booker T. Washington. (2019, January 18). FRONTLINE. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/debate-w-e-b-du-bois-and-booker-t-washington/

Dortch, J. (2022, January 25). The great debate: Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du bois. AFRO American Newspapers. https://afro.com/the-great-debate-booker-t-washington-vs-w-e-b-du-bois/

Ej905153. (n.d.). ERIC - Education Resources Information Center. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ905153

W.E.B. Du bois and the rise of Black education · Seeking to tell a story: From slavery to civil rights · AUC Woodruff library digital exhibits. (n.d.). Browse Exhibits · AUC Woodruff Library Digital Exhibits. https://digitalexhibits.auctr.edu/exhibits/show/seekingtotell/education

W.E.B. Dubois critiques Booker T. Washington. (n.d.). History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/40

Washington and du bois: The great debate – Issues and debates in African American literature. (n.d.). Library, Museums and Press – Online Exhibitions. https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/issues-and-debates-in-african-american-literature/home/washington-and-du-bois-the-great-debate/