Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois: Two Paths to Ending Jim Crow

Supreme Court Ruling 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson The Ruling: SEPARATE facilities were lawful as long as they were EQUAL. Justice John Harlan, the lone dissenter wrote, “Our Constitution is color-blind.” Supreme Court in 1896

Plessy v. Ferguson The Result: Legalized Jim Crow Segregation until 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education)

Booker T. Washington 1856-1915 Born a slave in southwestern Virginia Believed in vocational education for blacks Founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama Believed in gradual equality The slang term “Uncle Tom” is used in the African American or black community to describe someone who is perceived as overly ingratiating in interactions with white people. The term is meant to imply that the Uncle Tom is subservient and excessively deferential, behaving as someone of a lesser class or social status rather than treating whites as equals. Usually, this term is used as an insult. (definition from WiseGeek.com) Accused of being an “Uncle Tom” Received much white support Wrote Up From Slavery (1901)

Home of Booker T. Washington, born in 1856

Autobiography “Up From Slavery” "Even then I had a strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation in education, industry, and property, and for this I felt that they could better afford to strive than for political preferment."

Booker T. Washington "Think about it: We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands...Notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, we are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe." - in Up From Slavery

Booker T. Washington Outlined his views on race relations in a speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta – “Atlanta Compromise” Felt that black people should work to gain economic security before equal rights Believed black people will “earn” equality

Atlanta Compromise “In all things that are purely social,” blacks and whites “can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

Booker T. Washington Developed programs for job training and vocational skills at Tuskegee Institute Asked whites to give job opportunities to black people Was popular with white leaders in the North and South  

Booker T. Washington Was unpopular with many black leaders   Associated with leaders of the Urban League which emphasized jobs and training for blacks

Carpentry class at Tuskegee Institute (currently Tuskegee University) From the collections of the Alabama Department of Archives and History http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/photo&CISOPTR=4419&CISOBOX=1&REC=3

Senior class in Agricultural Education at Tuskegee Institute From the collections of the Alabama Department of Archives and History http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/photo&CISOPTR=3386&CISOBOX=1&REC=5

Tuskegee in 1901

W.E.B. DuBois 1868-1963 Born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts Well educated-First African American to receive Ph.D. from Harvard Wanted immediate equality between blacks and whites Wanted classical higher education for blacks Wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903) The Niagara Movement – led to NAACP For 25 years – Editor in Chief of the NAACP publication – The Crisis Pan-Africanist “global African society” Joins Communist party in 1961 at age 93 In 1963 at age 95 becomes citizen of Ghana

Dr. Du Bois (born in 1868) at Atlanta University

W.E.B. DuBois Views given in The Souls of Black Folks and The Crisis Strongly opposed Booker T. Washington’s tolerance of segregation Demanded immediate equality for blacks

The Souls of Black Folk “So far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, he does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinction, and opposes the higher training and ambition for our brighter minds . . . so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this . . . we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.”

W.E.B. DuBois Felt talented black students should get a classical education Felt it was wrong to expect citizens to “earn their rights” Founded the NAACP along with other black and white leaders

The Talented Tenth Men of America, the problem is plain before you. Here is a race transplanted through the criminal foolishness of your fathers. Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down. Education and work are the levers to uplift a people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply teach work–it must teach Life. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. No others can do this work and Negro colleges must train men for it. The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.