Compare And Contrast Washington And Dubois

Post civil war and reconstruction era was supposed to be a time to strengthen the country and finally create a home for all genders, races, religions, etc. However, the treatment of newly emancipated slaves did not change. Strict codes and laws were implemented to keep them enslaved. Specifically, Jim Crow Laws and Black Codes made it harder for “free” African American people to live a life that America once promised. These harsh environments led to the philosophies of Washington and DuBois. After centuries of breathing in oppressive, racist filled smog, Washington’s philosophy would help ease the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans as well as the white society. A founding member of the NAACP, W.E.B. DuBois believed that

After living for centuries in a world filled with oppression, racism, and a false sense of white superiority that everyone experienced, change would not be easy. Specifically, using protests and other in-your-face type of strategies would not lead to civil rights. Rather it would lead to violence, including lynching, attacks, murders, and other forms of torture specifically from the Ku Klux Klan. In opposition, Washington’s plan was potentially safer for the African American community by staying out of the spotlight and agreeing to a segregated lifestyle. Washington’s philosophy also established a smoother transition in the political/social world for the white people. The white society feared losing their power, but the transition would be easier if it was already their idea. To elaborate, by becoming skilled workers in manual jobs and working for white people, Washington believed that the white society would eventually trust the African Americans and want to give them equal rights. Washington explained that “the wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing” (Up From Slavery, 4). Demanding and “forcing” things from white society like DuBois believed, would only lead to more tension. Washington understood that in order to smoothly and safely get the equal rights that they deserved, the African American society needed to remain (or seeming to remain) powerless and work up through the ranks, as a self-made