Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois
One-third of the population of the South is . . . Negro [and]
whatever . . . sins the South may be called to bear, when it
comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the
Negro is given a man's chance in the [business] world. . . .
Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to
freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to
live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind
that we shall prosper [when] we learn to dignify and glorify
common labor, and put brains and skill into the common
occupations of life; [we] shall prosper [when] we learn to
draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the
ornamental . . . and the useful. [The Negro will never] prosper
till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in
writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life [where] we must
begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our
[complaints] to overshadow our opportunities.
- - Booker T. Washington,
“Atlanta Compromise” Speech (1895)
Booker T. Washington
. . .manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses,
and . . . a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or
cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.
W.E.B. Du Bois
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 . . .
This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated
[but] what has been the return?
The disfranchisement of the Negro.
The legal creation of a distinct [atmosphere] of inferiority
for the Negro.
The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher
[learning] of the Negro. . . .
[T]he Negro must . . . strive mightily to help himself. . . . By every civilized and peaceful
method we must strive for the right which the world accords to men, clinging unwaveringly to
those great words which the sons of the [Founding] Fathers would [gladly] forget: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.”
-- W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
Booker T. and W.E.B.
Gradualism vs. Activism
Instructions: Answer the following questions on a separate
sheet of paper. You may type your answer or write in pen.
Question #4 is a biggie.
1. Define the words “gradual” and “active.”
2. In the late 19th century Booker T. Washington advocated a policy
of gradualism to achieve civil rights for African Americans. -- Use
specific evidence from Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise”
Speech to support this statement.
3. In the early 1900s, W.E.B. Du Bois believed that activism was the
most effective approach for black Americans who wanted to gain
civil rights. -- Use specific evidence from Du Bois’ writing in The
Souls of Black Folk to support this statement.
4. In a well written paragraph answer the following question:
Between Washington and Du Bois, which civil rights leader
offered a better plan for obtaining equality?*
*In your answer be sure to consider how both blacks and whites in
southern society would react to each plan and the time period when
these men shared their ideas. Support your answer with specific
quotes from the readings and specific details you have learned
about the Civil Rights Movement.