1. Unit 4 Day 10 (Tuskegee and the Talented Tenth) Quote: “If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them on the same plane.” - Justice Henry Brown (1896)
Focus Question(s): What was the role of African American leaders and pressure groups in moves toward improving the economic, social, and political status of African Americans from 1877 to 1945?
Specified Content: Plessy v. Ferguson, Booker T. Washington, WEB DuBois and the NAACP, Marcus Garvey, A. Philip Randolph
State Standards: Strand 1 Concept 7 PO 2

2. Tuskegee and the Talented Tenth
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): The Supreme Court declares segregation is legal as long as there are equal facilities.

3. From 1890 to 1915 Booker T. Washington was a dominant leader of the African American people. He believed that blacks could gain respect through educational and economic success. He ran the Tuskegee Institute until 1915.

4. W.E.B. Du Bois was another African American leader who will help found the NAACP. Du Bois was a strong advocate for equal rights and believed that the “Talented Tenth” of blacks should rise up and lead this fight.

5. Marcus Garvey will move to the US from Jamaica in 1916 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He was a leader in the “Back to Africa” movement.

6. A. Philip Randolph was a union organizer who in 1917 helped organize elevator operators in New York City. In 1925 he will also help organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

7. Activity
Write down the following questions on a separate sheet of paper:
Who is the author of this speech and when was it delivered?
What is the author trying to tell us? What is his message?

8. Atlanta Compromise, Booker T. Washington (Sept. 16th 1895)
“Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour…. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.”