Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. Du Bois

Similarities

Both wanted to eventually gain more civil rights for blacks.

Background

Washington: Born a slave, worked his way up, self-educated. Du Bois: Born free, first African-American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard.

Booker T. Washington

Born a slave, worked his way up, self educated. Founded vocational schools (Tuskegee Institute 1881). Publicly accepted disenfranchisement and social segregation in exchanged for black economic progress, education, and justice. Whites liked him - invited to speak at cotton states expo. Said blacks should lift themselves up through communication and work. Founded National Negro Business League. Black intellectuals resisted him, lower/middle classes supported him. Often seen as "2-faced" Advisor to Teddy Roosevelt and Taft.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Born free, first African American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard. Intellectual - wrote studies, essays, novels, poetry, etc. addressing race. Wanted the church to be at the center of the civil rights movement. Challenged idea of white supremacy - imagined black God, etc. Activist (lectures, protests, criticized other black leaders). Started the Niagara Movement (anti-lynching) in 1905. One of the NAACP founders in 1909. Politics began leaning more and more to the left. Traveled to Africa and Russia, joined Communist Party 1961.