A New Path

Fannie Barrier Williams created a new path toward racial equality by taking aspects of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois's ideas and mixing them with her own, but also through her disagreement with some of their thoughts.

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Fannie Barrier Williams agreed with Washington's emphasis on industrial education, but she also believed, like Du Bois, that higher education was necessary for blacks to achieve success and equality. 

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Williams believed that it would take the efforts of all black people to achieve equality, and thus rejected W.E.B. Du Bois's theory of "The Talented Tenth." However, she does argue for "trained intellects," who would provide the education and training necessary for black people to rise through the social and racial hierarchy.

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Booker T. Washington arguably had a submissive approach to the achievement of equality which Williams also seems to reject. In her essay, Industrial Education - Will It Solve The Negro Problem, she seems to encourage blacks to challenge whites academically and occupationally. Her idea is for black people to prove to the whites that they are just as capable, if not more, and should therefore be given rights.