Discrimination
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 differences
Indeed, Washington backed up his assertions by founding the Tuskeegee Institute as a trade school for young Black men. From our perspective of over 100 years, we must admit that he may have been right. Washington enjoyed access to the power elite of his time, but one must wonder whether President Roosevelt, for example, in his interactions with Mr. In the political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s, any hint of a pro-communist attitude--black or white--was unwelcome in any group with a national political agenda. Washington's programme naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as apparently almost completely to overshadow the higher aims of life. " After all, he did not become a popular president by being oblivious to such political maneuvering. Though he preached appeasement and a "hands off" attitude toward politics, Washington has been accused of wielding imperious power over "his people" and of consorting with the white elite. Before Washington's conciliatory stance gained a foothold, "the assertion of the manhood rights of the Negro by himself was the main reliance. Moreover, DuBois understood that equality would not be earned through appeasement. Washington] was 'intimate' with Roosevelt from 1901 to 1908. DuBois's influential The Souls of Black Folk.
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Acceptance Essays
