Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois are arguably two most influential figures on the movement to achieve civil rights for black Americans. They both played large roles in trying to improve racial relations and civil rights during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Although they were both focused on enhancing the quality of black life in the United States, the fact that Washington was from the south and Dubois was from the north caused their views to differ. The “Atlanta Exposition speech” by booker T. Washington addressed the topic of racial relations in the south. “Of Mr.Booker T. Washington and others” was written by W.E.B Dubois as a critique of Washington and his views on the improvement of black life.
During the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, he was the person most responsible for the changes in conditions for black people in American society. He also was responsible for changes in the way they viewed themselves. The Talented Tenth was a speech to classify and explain the role of the ‘talented ten percentile’ of the blacks in relation to their evolvement. It helps show the situation and the need for improvement. Dubois suggests that
Firstly Booker T. Washington, he was a Black educator who focused on practical education which would lead to black social advancement. He gained a PHD at Harvard University. Despite his high profile he was a controversial figure, he represented the hopes and aims of African-American’s at the time, he promoted self-help, self-reliance and social advancement. He did this via actively supporting black education, which was to be influential as it gave way for education of practical and vocational work, unfortunately this wasn’t that of an academic institution. However this showed people how to be blacksmiths, wagon makers and agricultural techniques.
The civil rights movement developed in the period after 1945 because of the advancements the Second World War and important black activists had made in civil rights as it had led to a strong improvement in the status of black people as a whole. A main reason for the development of civil rights, I feel, was the influence of black activists at this time proving change was possible. Organisations such as CORE- The Congress of Racial Equality looked at economic boycotts and methods to gain attention as well as many sit-ins organised by James Farmer. For Example an important individual in black civil rights, Adam Clayton- Powell (who was the first man a of African American descent to be elected for congress) ran the Harlem bus boycott in 1941 which in consequence led to an uptake of 200 black workers. This protests success could also have been some of the inspiration behind the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.
To what extent was the Federal Government responsible for improving the status of black people in the United States in the years 1945-64? The Federal Government was partially responsible for improving the status of black people, although individual activists are also partially responsible. The Federal Government is headed by the President, but also comprises of congress and the Supreme Court, which each had a role to play in dismantling segregation. Although the presidency and the Supreme Court would play a larger role in helping blacks than congress, due to the nature of what the people in congress believed and wanted to achieve. In the spring of 1946, Irene Morgan, a black woman, boarded a bus in Virginia to go to Baltimore, Maryland.
Du Bois’ ethnicities included African American, French, Dutch, and Indian. W.E.B Du Bois was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1895. 3 Du Bois mainly stressed the idea of social and economical equality among the African-American community, which was very different from Washington’s view. He highly stated that the “talented tenth” theory should be given access to the mainstream American life.3 His “talented tenth” theory was first introduced in 1903 and mainly focused on helping the need for higher education to create leadership qualities to the most needed 10 percent of African-Americans.5 W.E.B Du Bois was also an important contributor to help co-found the National African American Colored People or NAACP and became the association's director of research and editor of its magazine, The Crisis.4 Overtime W.E.B Du Bois developed into a skilled historian , poet, and
W.E.B Dubois is recognized as an advocate of the racial uplift movement. Racial uplift ideology refers to an idea of African Americans who adapted to the social codes of society during the early 1900’s. These were educated African Americans whose common goal was to reshape the image of its people. The middle and upper class African Americans were tired of being racially profiled, or characterized by negative stereotypes. In Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk, he asks, “how does it feel to be a problem?” This statement triggered a new philosophical movement for African American writers and people.
Julie Huynh English/History February 29, 2012 Word Count: 449 The Civil Rights Movement The African-American civil rights movement was an act trying to get rid of the racial oppression in America. This movement wanted to win equal rights for African Americans. In the 1900s, racism against African Americans was very popular among cultures. White Americans would not share the rights that they had with the African Americans; instead, they put more labor and burden upon the African Americans’ shoulders. Because of this, the African Americans had many motives for the start of the Civil Rights Movement.
It rested on a support system of black patrons, black-owned businesses and publications. It was successful in establishing black identity as an integral part of American history. It influenced future generations of black writers, but it was largely ignored by the literary establishment after it waned in the 1930s. With the advent of the civil rights movement, it again acquired wider recognition. The symbolism and actual effects of the event served as a big inspiration for blacks in future struggles for their rights, like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s (Hutchinson, George.
“The National Association of the Advancement for Colored People, NAACP, was founded in 1909 by a group of black and white activists.” (PBS, internet) In 1917, the NAACP and thousands of blacks marched down New York City to protest discrimination and racial violence. Another activist organization was the Interracial Congress of Racial Equality, and it was founded in Chicago. So many blacks had to struggle to either avoid the segregation laws, and some blacks tried to change them. President Truman helped African Americans make it easier in life by making an executive order that desegregated the military. This was another link in