W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington were very influential leaders for the equality of blacks, specifically ex-slaves while W.E.B. DuBois was a founder of the well known NAACP. Both of them agreed that the goal was to have black people be fully engaged in society. This meant they should be active in the economic as well as the political sections of society. Unfortunately, their differing backgrounds brought them to very different places on how they felt that ultimate goal would be achieved.
Booker T. Washington was born as a slave. He lived in the south, which was very unkind to blacks, and worked hard to pay for his education. He was a teacher and knew too well how unequal the situation was for black people. While he knew that there was a time to face these inequalities that time was certainly not now but it was going to happen eventually as change itself is inevitable. He felt that the change would be the product of the ever present struggles and challenges faced by slaves and free slaves. Washington was a successful farmer in the South which served as a great example of how hard work can lead to success.
The hard truth of the South was local governments controlled by white
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The results of hard work can lay the foundation for a strong future and the timing of Dubois could have been better. Blacks trying to fight for their legal rights at this point in time would have resulted in many incidents of violence and bloodshed. When the news reported on this the telling would be skewed heavily in favor of whites, if any reporting was done at all about the violence. The protesters would have been seen as ignorant blacks, leading to a further decline in how the country treated black people. Dubois may have been highly educated and in possession of a high moral center, but he was not street smart. It would have been like trying to fight against a brick wall with a