Read & Write an Essay about WEB vs Booker

W. E. B. DuBois

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.