Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Essay

Indeed, Washington's efforts at the advancement of his people were cast as a direct counterpoint to the militant action of Marcus Garvey's followers and other hardline desegregationists. To Washington, the black man was simply in the process of earning his equality through hard-won collective advancement. In this altogether different approach to the problems experienced by the black man in America, Washington's was a more conciliatory mode aimed at the political rationality of whites. In one such plain, Washington would argue, "in all discussion and legislation bearing upon the presence of the Negro in America, it should be borne in mind that we are dealing with a people who were forced to come here without their consent and in the face of a most earnest protest. This gives the Negro a claim upon your sympathy and generosity that no other race can possess. Besides, though forced from his native land into residence in a country that was not of his choosing, he has earned his right to the title of American citizen by obedience to the law, by patriotism and fidelity, and by the millions which his brawny arms and willing hands have added to the wealth of this country." (Washington, 297)

As to this obedience and patriotism, Dubois would offer a counterpoint, indicating that the African-American had, through his hard work and suffering, more than earned his right to freedom and equality. To Dubois, any willingness to settle for less was tantamount to betrayal of his own people. While his criticism of Washington is balanced by his admiration, there can be no doubt that it would also represent a transition from Washington's passive ideologies to the far more confrontational approach of the civil rights era.

Works Cited:

Dubois, W.E.B. (1903). Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others. The Souls of Black Folk.

Washington, B.T. (1901). An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work. Documenting the American South