African American Rights Dbq Essay

Progressiveness of African American Rights in America

It is a common belief that after the Civil War had ended, African Americans had become free and became apart of society with the rest of America. However, not only did many slaves not gain freedom until months after the war had ended, but discrimination of African Americans was still heavily prominent in American society. This gave rise to many inspirational African American figures such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois that spread their ideals on how to solve the issue.This debate grew rapidly in the early late 1800’s when a man by the name of Booker T. Washington had many ideas for the future of African American rights. His main beliefs involved submission and accommodation of

Washington was born a slave in Hale’s Ford Virginia, in 1856 and would be released when he was nine years old when the Civil War had ended. After his time as a slave, he had worked in a salt furnace and as a houseboy where he learned of morality and cleanliness. Booker T. then got his education years later at Hampton Institute, a school devoted to industrial education. Booker T. would later go on to found the Tuskegee Institute, This formed the basis of his philosophy on progressivism for African Americans, for people to accommodate themselves and focus on economic self-improvement. W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington Massachusetts in 1868, and was born a free man, three years after the Civil War. Du Bois knew little about his father when he was young, causing him to be put into an extended family progam. This left an impression on him as it can be shown in his future work. Du Bois had gotten an education from Harvard University, University of Berlin, and Fisk University. Du Bois went on to study with some of the greatest social thinkers, and had a career of teaching lifelong activism. Du Bois was drawn into political conflict in the 1950’s which led to his indictment for a grand jury. This caused him to be distrusted by his colleagues and looked down upon by federal figures. Du Bois went on to write nineteen books, four magazine edits, and produce many articles and

and Du Bois both had very similar ideals for the future of African Americans, However, they also clashed frequently with their philosophies. One of their main differences had to do with how they voice their opinions. Booker T. was a firm believer in submission and laying low temporarily. As Booker T. states in his ‘Atlanta Compromise’ speech, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” He viewed the matter as being unavoidable to have conflict, so he figures that the less they care about discrimination, the smaller the problem will become. Many believe this point of view came from his early life as a slave, where he was taught that he would always be discriminated against and that it was natural for African Americans. On the other hand, Du Bois had the opposite belief. As stated in Du Bois book “The Souls of Black Folk” he states, “The whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro’s shoulders.” Du Bois was a firm believer in protest and making the world hear his point for the greater good. Some other ideals that Du Bois focused on that Booker T. did not include, the right to vote for all citizens, un-acceptingness in color discrimination, and that education should extend to both white and black boys. Therefore, Booker T. took more of a pacifist stance and was willing to temporarily give away some rights for what he believed was a bright future. Meanwhile, Du Bois took an