The history of African American education is complex, but the brief outline of the W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington conflicts help to illustrate the emotions and ideas involved in this significant piece of history.
W.E.B. DuBois was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a founder of the NAACP and a successful writer. He is credited with writing nineteen books in his lifetime making huge strides for the African American community. His views changed during his lifetime. He began as a supporter of Booker T. Washington and ended his life as a communist in Ghana.
Booker T. Washington was born a
slave in Franklin County, Virginia. He was probably a mixed race child,
but did not feel the pride that DuBois felt of his ancestry. He worked
hard after emancipation and found himself appointed head of the Tuskegee
Institute in 1881. He took Tuskegee from a "community subsisting mainly
on fat pork and corn bread to a progressive modern town" (Wish 30). He
taught the newly freed African Americans to be teachers,
craftsmen and businessmen and make their own way in
the world. Washington stressed learning by doing the task and not by theories
or abstract ideas. He believed that with training the African American
would become economically indispensable and the White American society
would open it's doors to them.
The beliefs of Washington and DuBois
were related until DuBois' book The Souls of Black Folk was published.
DuBois almost accepted a teaching position at Tuskegee prior to his first
book. The offer came too late to unite Washington and DuBois. DuBois felt
the "Talented Tenth" of the African American population should be able
to be more than farmers and "money-makers." The tenth of the population
that DuBois wrote about was the portion he hoped to elevate to leaders
of the race. He thought they ought to have a classical college education
just like White leaders of society. Washington was criticized for ignoring
"the talented tenth and left the Negro forever as a
hewer of wood and a drawer of water" (Wish 31). Washington
advocated manual training for African Americans so that they could work
their way up the economic ladder. He was hoping to create the "black bourgeoisie,"
whereas DuBois would settle for no less than equality.
DuBois had been criticized for ignoring the small strides that Washington's work accomplished and only concentrating on the ultimate goal, total equality. Washington found himself under heavy criticism for working too closely with the white leaders and allowing himself to compromise his beliefs for small insubstantial laws for African Americans.
Washington was able to adjust to the changes in society while DuBois was not. The NAACP might have been more pragmatic under Washington. The leadership of DuBois gave the NAACP a "militant stance" (Clark 244). Washington's approach to civil rights may have hindered the movement in the South (Clark 245). The accommodating stance that Washington and the southern whites followed left the movement at a slow crawl for many years, and shifted the concentration to the north (Clark 245).
The conflict between the two leaders spanned many years and several topics, but they both made significant changes in the lives of the African American through hard work and solid belief. Although, their approach was vastly different their work will be immortalized in the history books forever.
Works Cited:
The Negro Since Emancipation, Edited by Harvey Wish 1964.
African American Political Thought, Clark, pg. 244-245.
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.
“it shows a might lot of cheek
“if I should have the drive to seek
To study chemistry and Greek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
To hoe the cotton on his land,
Another place for hand or cook.
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
Why stick you nose inside a book?”
And some in cultivating land
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.
“That all you folks have missed the boat
For what can property avail
Who shout about the right to vote,
If dignity and justice fail?
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
Unless you help to make the laws,
In uproar over civil rights.
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up
keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
clause.
But work, and save, and buy a house.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.