Washington and Du Bois: The Ideas of Two Prominent Racial Leaders

Photo Citation: You Decide: Washington or Du Bois - Who Had a Better Vision?, PBS Learning Media, Accessed November 12, 2023.

 

Booker T. Washington:

• A focus on economics should come before politics in the pursuit of racial equality.

• There should be a larger focus on industrial education. Washington makes little mention of what he perceives as the value of higher education for black people.

• Social and racial equality will be achieved through continued struggle rather than aggression.

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W.E.B. Du Bois:

• The focus should be on politics before economics in the pursuit of racial equality.

• Industrial education is valuable for the advancement of black people, but it needs to be supplemented by higher education.

• Is more of an advocate for achieving social and racial equality by taking an aggressive approach.

• Du Bois believed in the theory of "The Talented Tenth," in which a select group of blacks would be educated and these elites would lead the entire black race to racial equality.

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Comparison of Ideas:

• Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois's thoughts surrounding economics and politics are on different ends of the spectrum. Washington encouraged black people to invest themselves in vocational and economic work, with the implication that they would earn their equality. Du Bois advocated for a political approach first, arguing that without political equality for black people, economic success was nearly impossible to achieve.

• Du Bois criticized the "submissiveness" that Washington seems to suggest in his "Atlanta Compromise" speech and his lack of mention of the value of higher education. Booker T. Washington emphasizes the importance of industrial education for the advancement of black people, but Du Bois accuses him of asking them to give up their rights to higher education. Du Bois insists that higher education is necessary to round out industrial education.