Booker T Washington Vs Dubois Rhetorical Analysis

Equality, the quality or state of being equal; the quality or state of having the same rights or social status. The idea of being equal between races was thought to be insane before the Civil Rights movement and the rebellion of African Americans wanting freedom and stability for the first time in 245 years. Wanting paying jobs and homes for their families, two men who voiced African American difficulties, were W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. They both built on different theories but in all aimed for the same objective of receiving the rights all African Americans deserved. However, Dubois makes the stronger argument because he appealed to multiple different audiences and is more ethical, making him more convincing and a source to trust

Booker T. Washington and Others” Dubois uses a great deal of rhetorical strategies. His most used rhetorical strategy was ethos or ethical. This makes him a trustworthy and credible source, giving him the stronger argument. Dubois starts off his essay by stating that Booker T. Washington’s ideas of acquiring new skills and staying silent as a form of gaining equal rights was not an original idea. He emphasizes that, “His programme of industrial education, conciliation of the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights, was not wholly original; the Free Negroes from 1830 up to wartime had striven to build industrial schools, and the American Missionary Association had from the first taught various trades; and Price and others had sought a way of honorable alliance with the best of the Southerners.” (Dubois 1) This shows that he backups his statement that Washington had “old” ideas by stating a specific date and event, thus making him a more reliable source. In his essay, Dubois also mention how in all the periods where slavery has been intense that surrendering was always the most recommended option. He states, “In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro’s tendency to self-assertion has been called forth; at this period a policy of submission is advocated. In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.” (Dubois 4) This also shows how he compares our history to others to show how we were completely different. This also makes his information more valid because he doesn’t just dwell on one topic, he refers to some outside sources. All of this demonstrates, how Dubois makes the stronger argument because he uses a lot more rhetorical strategies, specifically ethos, which means he is more