EARLY CIVIL RIGHTS
SS8H7 The student will evaluate key political, social, and economic
changes that occurred in Georgia between 1877 and 1918.
C. Explain the roles of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Dubois, John and
Lugenia Burns Hope, and Alonzo Herndon.
.
Essential Question
1.
2.
3.
4.
How can accommodation and activism be effective in bringing about
change?
Which is more effective?
Compare and Contrast the difference between Washington and Du Bois.
Discuss the role of the Niagara Movement and its importance to the Early
Civil Rights movement.
Accommodation or Activism
“There is in this world no such force as the
force of a person determined to rise. The
human soul cannot be permanently chained.”
-W.E.B. Dubois
Key Unit
Vocabulary
RATIONALE

The Great Debates: The Great
Debates is an exercise that
encourages students to analyse a
potentially divisive social issue
and prepare a defence of their
views on the issue. At this stage
of the course students have been
versed in preliminary research
techniques, various debate styles,
and encouraged to have conviction
in supported beliefs. The Great
Debates brings students to the
level that they debate issues with
solid evidence to support
everything they say.
 Over view: Students will analyze the
philosophies of Booker T. Washington and
W.E.B. Dubois in an ef for t to distinguish who
had a more appropriate strategy for equal
political and economic rights for African
Americans. The unit is designed to be easily
modified for use for students of var ying
abilities.
 Essential Understanding: Students will
identify the dif ferences between both
prominent and African American men and
what rationale they had for their beliefs. They
will use this context knowledge to determine
who had the more ef fective philosophy.
THE GREAT DEBATE
Two of perhaps the greatest leaders during the
Early Civil Rights movement were Booker T.
Washington and W. E. B. Dubois.
The rivalry between Booker T. Washington and
W.E.B Dubois is one well known to scholars
and historians of the African American
community.
It is with Dubois Souls of Black Folk that
Dubois makes his historic break with the
philosophies of Booker T. Washington.
FACTS ABOUT BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
 Washington is remembered chiefly
for this “Atlanta Compromise”
speech.
 In this speech, he called on white
America to provide jobs and
industrial-agricultural education for
African Americans.
 He was the founder of the Tuskegee
Institute.
 Washington stated that in exchange
for education, African Americans
would give up demands for social
equality and civil rights.
 Favored a gradual approach
towards integrating the races.
ATLANTA COMPROMISE SPEECH
WHAT DOES BOOKER T. WASHINGTON DO TO HELP
AFRICAN AMERICANS BECOME BETTER SKILLED
LABORS FOR THE WHITE SOCIET Y?
 Booker T. Washington helped establish
Tuskegee Institute which was the first
school to introduce the Industrial
Agricultural approach of learning.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
ATLANTA COMPROMISE SPEECH
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON IS BEST KNOWN OR HIS
ATLANTA COMPROMISE SPEECH.
1. He urged African Americans to work as
farmers, skilled artisans, domestic servants,
and manual laborers to prove their worth to
whites.
2. Accommodate the white man and provide a
service that they need.
3. Trust southern whites and accept white
supremacy as a way of life.
HOW DID BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
ENCOURAGE ACCOMMODATION
Washington believed that if blacks gained
an education they could prove themselves
useful to whites, then civil rights and social
equality would eventually be given to them.
Why is Booker T. Most Remembered?
Booker T. Washington’s legacy lives on
because he stated that :
political and social equality were less
important as goals for economic success and
independence .
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
FACTS ABOUT W. E. B. DUBOIS
 Although he respected
improving conditions for
African Americans he
disagreed with Booker T.
Washington.
 He felt that African Americans
should fight for equal rights.
 Professor of the Atlanta
University.
 Wrote the book Souls of Black
Folk where he encouraged
African Americans to fight
against discrimination.
 He was one of the founders
of the Niagara Movement.
 Favored an immediate
integration of the races.
W. E. B. DUBOIS
 Dubois disagreed with
many of Washington's
opinions, but also gave
him respect.
 He stated that Washington
was one of the first true
black intellectuals who
tried to help the black race
by encouraging and
establishing education for
African Americans in the
South.
W. E. B. DUBOIS
 W. E. B. Dubois stated
that in order for whites
and blacks to live
alongside each other, the
African American
community must take
action to force White
America to understand
and accept the African
American community as
equals.
 He called the African
American community
into action to fight
against discrimination
THE NIAGARA MOVEMENT
 Du Bois began to speak out against Washington’s
view of passive aggressive and began to form the
Niagara Movement.
 The Niagara Movement renounced Booker T.
Washington's accommodation policies set forth in
his famed "Atlanta Compromise" speech ten years
earlier.
 The Niagara Movement's vision in the words of Du
Bois, "We want full manhood suffrage and we want
it now.... We are men! We want to be treated as
men and we shall win."
 Twenty-nine men met and formed a group they
called the Niagara Movement.
THE NIAGARA MOVEMENT
The Purpose was to
stand up against
discrimination, Jim
Crow Laws, and fight
for equal rights.
The name came
because the men
wanted to unleash a
the "mighty current"
of protest across
America.
THE NIAGARA MOVEMENT
The Niagara Movement would soon
become one of the most influential
organizations to help African Americans.
NAACP: National Organization for the
Advancement of Colored People.
Evaluate Both Sides Journal Entry
DIRECTIONS: WRITE A JOURNAL ENTRY
FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES.
1. WRITE AN ENTRY FROM THE VIEW POINT
OF A SUPPORTER WHO SUPPORTED BOOKER
T. WASHINGTON AND HIS VIEW OF
ACCOMMODATION.
2. WRITE AN ENTRY FROM THE VIEW POINT
OF A SUPPORTER WHO SUPPORTED W.E. B.
DUBOIS'S THEORY OF ACTIVISM.