Discrimination
The struggle for social and economic equality of Black people in America has been long and slow. It is sometimes amazing that any progress has been made in the racial equality arena at all; every tentative step forward seems to be diluted by losses elsewhere. For every "Stacey Koons" that is convicted, there seems to be a Texaco executive waiting to send Blacks back to the past. Throughout the struggle for equal rights, there have been courageous Black leaders at the forefront of each discrete movement. From early activists such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, to 1960s civil rights leaders and radicals such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, the progress that has been made toward full equality has resulted from the visionary leadership of these brave individuals. This does not imply, however, that there has ever been widespread agreement within the Black community on strategy or that the actions of prominent Black leaders have met with strong support from those who would benefit from these actions. This report will examine the influence of two "early era" Black activists: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Through an analysis of the ideological d
DuBois was the more prescient visionary. In order to understand the differences in the philosophies of Washington and Dubois, it is useful to know something about their backgrounds. Washington's plan for blacks to at least become skilled artisans and tradesmen must have seemed logical to him from the standpoint of improving the economic lot of the average Black man. " The compromise included, in DuBois's words, "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, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. A gifted scholar, formal education played a much greater role in DuBois's life than it did in Washington's. We will look specifically at the events leading to and surrounding the "Atlanta Compromise" in 1895. DuBois wrote over 20 books and more than 100 scholarly articles on the historical and sociological nature of the Black experience. For example, in the aftermath of the "Atlanta Massacre" of September 22, 1906 and a similar incident in Springfield, Illinois, "it was clear to almost all the players that the tide was running strongly in favor of protest and militancy. His essential strategy for the advancement of American Blacks was for them to achieve enhanced status as skilled tradesmen for the present, then using this status as a platform from which to reach for full equality later. Perhaps the fact that there was a public dialogue in itself did more to encourage Black equality than the philosophy of any one prominent Black man. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise" as follows: "Mr.
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Acceptance Essays
