After the end of slavery, racism was a major problem in American society. Discrimination or even segregation was active by Jim Crow laws. In addition, violence happened to African Americans such as lynching. Besides, African Americans faced disfranchisement. At the time, there were two important leaders who jumped on this issue to help African Americans, even though they had completely opposite opinion toward the issue. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois.
Booker T. Washington’s program focused on the education for real life jobs. According to Washington’s speech, the Atlanta Compromise, he stated “The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.” He believed that African Americans should learn basic trades for economic reasons, not political or social reasons. For this reason, he built Tuskegee Institute, a school for African Americans, teaching useful skills and trades. Moreover, he believed after the end of slavery, African Americans should begin from the bottom of life, not at the top. As in The Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois, Du Bois criticized that Washington fundamentally asked African American to give …show more content…
E. B. Du Bois, on the other hand, believed in a strategy called the gradualist political strategy which focused on blacks being smart to get anywhere in life. He believed in the “Talented Tenth” As in one of ten blacks would rise and become leaders of their race. They had to be college educated based on their ability and accept the proper resources, which all comes from reading, writing, and organized training. Unlikely Washington, Du Bois wanted immediate equality. He believed that the smarter the blacks are, the more equal they were for the whites. Furthermore, he asked for the rights to vote for African Americans. For instance, as he stated in his collection The Souls of Black Folk “voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is
Booker T. Washington’s program focused on the education for real life jobs. According to Washington’s speech, the Atlanta Compromise, he stated “The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.” He believed that African Americans should learn basic trades for economic reasons, not political or social reasons. For this reason, he built Tuskegee Institute, a school for African Americans, teaching useful skills and trades. Moreover, he believed after the end of slavery, African Americans should begin from the bottom of life, not at the top. As in The Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois, Du Bois criticized that Washington fundamentally asked African American to give …show more content…
E. B. Du Bois, on the other hand, believed in a strategy called the gradualist political strategy which focused on blacks being smart to get anywhere in life. He believed in the “Talented Tenth” As in one of ten blacks would rise and become leaders of their race. They had to be college educated based on their ability and accept the proper resources, which all comes from reading, writing, and organized training. Unlikely Washington, Du Bois wanted immediate equality. He believed that the smarter the blacks are, the more equal they were for the whites. Furthermore, he asked for the rights to vote for African Americans. For instance, as he stated in his collection The Souls of Black Folk “voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is