Washington vs. DuBois
Two African American leaders that fought to bring their race to a more heightened sense of equality are Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Though these men sought the same goal of social, political, and economic equality, regardless of race, they possessed two warring ideals and strategies on how to achieve that goal. Washington took on a more weak-minded path on the way to equality and would rather work from the bottom up than to infuriate the whites, whereas DuBois believed that equality would be accomplished by fighting to get to the top. Washington, in order to gain social, political, and economic equality, believed that African Americans needed to surrender their status and position in society and act subservient towards the white man. He believed that the South was beginning to accept the blacks since the government of Atlanta took the time to request that he participate in the opening of the Atlanta Exposition and on the board of Jurors of Award. He conceived that, since the government was taking its time to incorporate a black man into their special functions, things must be letting up for the rest of the race as well. He told both blacks and whites to "cast down their buckets where they are" because each would ben
In regards to Washington's comments on Negro ministers, DuBois responds saying that it was poverty and ignorance that tempted them to branch off from the main religion. DuBois took on a more active stance in saying that blacks needed their rights in order to become socially, politically and economically equal to the whites. Washington's view of the ethnic relationships was that each had something valuable to offer the other and that those attributions should not be overlooked. The black man, according to DuBois, was forced to go through an everlasting battle within himself. He saw the great advancements that the blacks had made thus far in regards to work and saw that their ability to earn money was vastly superior to being financially equal to the whites. They both sought equality in all aspects for the blacks and whites and yet 4believed in completely different paths. He believed that their political rights would eventually come when the southerners ceased to see African Americans as foreigners and accepted them for who they were. Blacks, according to Washington, should seek the influence of the whites in major political issues because they had more experience. As a result of that low social standing the blacks would then, only receive an inferior education. He states that the black man constantly goes through a double aimed struggle in trying to "escape white contempt" and "work for a poverty stricken horde. " One could not learn how to exercise their political rights in refusing to use those little rights with which they were provided. " The black man fights hard against those who persecuted him so greatly. "Work, culture, liberty- all these we need not singly but together.
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