In this essay titled, The lives of two great African American men. I’ve researched and written about the lives of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois. I will be discussing their lives, and the influential deeds they accomplished for the African American community. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois were very different Even though they both were very educated and believed in education, they both went to college to achieve their dreams. Washington was considered to be a spokesman for African Americans. W.E.B. Dubois was an African American Sociologist, the most important Black leader in the United states during half the first twentieth century.
Booker T. Washington was born and raised a slave in Hales Ford, Virginia in 1858. Washington was one of the greatest pioneers in African American education. Washington received his education the hard way. He worked in salt furnaces and coalmines by day as he went to school at night. Later, he attended Hampton Institute in Virginia, which had become famous as a school for both African Americans and Native Americans. Washington paid his way by working as a janitor. After he graduated from Hampton in 1875, he taught at Malden in West Virginia and later continued his studies at Wayland seminary in Washington, DC. Washington eventually became a teacher at Hampton in 1879. While there, he set up evening school courses that are still part of the program.
Booker T. Washington urged African Americans to stay in the “South and enroll in vocational classes to learn practical skills, such as farming, mechanics, carpentry, masonry”. Washington also wanted African Americans to earn enough money to own their own businesses and property. He also stated “African Americans should focus on self-improvement and money making skills”. Washington did not want African Americans wasting time protesting for civil rights. Washington received criticism from W.E.B Dubois, who disagree with Washington’s statement and urged African Americans to improve themselves by “fighting for their rights”. Dubois believed African Americans should stand up and fight for justice and equality. He also believed “African Americans should enroll in college and take science, history, math, literature and foreign languages”.
Dubois believed the future of the race depended on the success of the Talented Tenth. The Talented Tenth was that part of the African American population that went to college and were professionals. Members of the Talented Tenth included lawyers, doctors, judges, politicians and education.
In 1881 Booker T. Washington was chosen to start the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuskegee opened with only 30 students, Washington was the only teacher and his forceful public speaking and effective writing helped gain public support to advance education for African Americans. Before he died in 1915, Washington had made Tuskegee one of the best schools in the South. Washington also wrote a number of books. The most popular today is his autobiography Up From Slavery, first published in 1901.
W.E.B Dubois was one of the nation’s foremost African American scholar, author, editor, and civil rights leader. Dubois was born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Dubois was the first African American to attend Harvard University, where he received a PhD in history. He also published The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, the first volume in Harvard Historical Studies.
Dubois strongly believed African Americans were as capable of achievement as whites. Dubois proved this when he was elected as vice president of the first Pan African American Congress, in London. Dubois also put together a conference meeting called the Niagara Movement. The meeting was based on the systematical denial of civil and human rights. W.E.B intellectual civil rights pioneer and founder of the NAACP. The NAACP was an interracial American organization created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation:
to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitution rights.
He left the United States in 1961 because of the slowly progress of race relation in United States. He moved Accra Ghana where he made his home. In 1962 he joined the Communist Party, and renounced his American Citizenship. Dubois died August 27, 1964 on the day of the Great March on Washington led by Martin Luther King, who also had a dream. WWW.Dogpile.Com
