Compare And Contrast Washington And Dubois Push For Civil Rights

Washington and Dubois push for Civil Rights through ideas about education, patriotism, and immigration in order to show that equality for all people is a requirement before society is allowed to progress and flourish. Washington uses logic to appeal to readers in order to push for equal education for all people. “Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load upwards, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South, or one-third of its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance

The presentation of Washington’s ideas further his argument by giving both a positive option and a negative one, then saying that it is up to the reader to pick the outcome, the presentation makes the reader automatically side with the positive one because no one wants a negative outcome. Similarly, Dubois uses strong diction to emphasise the importance of education. “And when we call for education we mean real education. We believe in work. We ourselves are workers, but work in not necessarily education.” Dubois is including this detail to clarify his meaning when he calls for “real education.” He acknowledges the value of work when he states that “we believe in work”, however, it is obvious that Dubois puts a significant emphasis on school education over work education. Dubois wants black people to be given the same opportunities for education as white people. Furthermore, the way that Dubois phrases and presents this information also furthers his

“The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone, but for all true Americans. It is a fight for ideals, lest this, our common fatherland, false to its founding, become in truth the land of the thief and home of the Slave...” Here Dubois cleverly switches a famous American phrase out with his own: “land of the thief and home of the slave”, in order to evoke a feeling of guilt and shame in his audience. Furthermore, Dubois states that his argument isn’t just a battle for African Americans, but for “all true Americans.” His phrasing creates a feeling of shame in Americans claiming to be “true Americans” if they don’t fight in the battle for equal rights. It is important to evoke negative feelings of guilt and shame in the audience because appealing to emotion is a great way to influence people, with strong negative feelings being one of the most powerful emotions that can be used to influence