Du Bois said, “To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in land is very bottom of hardships” (“History.com”). This quote means that being a different race or color from most people can actually affect people in many different ways. (Complex) Although, many Americans in the Gilded Age dealt with segregation, which enriched their culture with their differences. Although, there were many contributors such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Ida B. Wells, who all dealt with hardships such as, lack of education and skills, basic civil rights, and lack of equality. “Character, not circumstances, makes the man” (“History.com”). Booker T. Washington, an African American man, saw the lack of education and skills for the African American men. Therefore, he made the Tuskegee Institution (a school for blacks) in Alabama in 1881. (Simple) Washington dedicated his whole life to teaching the African Americans. Washington says, “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way” (“History.com”). (Compound-Complex) Washington says this because of how the blacks were not welcome in white schools, but he changed that by …show more content…
Wells). This quote was stated by Ida B. Wells, an African American woman, who wanted to change the way people thought about black men and women. She believed that blacks were not bestial, savage, but just as equal as white men and women (“Womens History”). Wells was a former slave herself just before the Emancipation and later was a teacher and a reporter (“Womens History”). She began writing for the Negro Press Association for the African American newspapers around the world. Wells based her beliefs on race and gender justice. By doing so, she refused to get up for a white man while on a train in Memphis. Wells believed that she should not have to give up her seat to someone of the opposite gender and race and showed that by not following through of giving up her