Compare And Contrast Dubois And Booker T Washington

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La’Sarah Richards Two great leaders of the black community in the 19th century were W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. However, they had disagreements on strategies for black social and economic progress. Their opposing philosophies is in much of today's discussions on how to end class and racial injustice in the black community (Atlanta Exposition Address, 2005). Booker T. Washington, the most influential black leader of his time, preached a philosophy on self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills and the cultivation…show more content…
Washington. Booker T. Washington understood that blacks would never be equal to whites and instead of fighting with it he accepted it. By understanding that the blacks would never be equal it prevented them from wasting anytime trying to become better individuals. Booker T. Washington took the idea of never getting past racism and preached about it. Instead of preaching that one day the blacks would have equality and preaching wrong, Booker T. Washington preached to them that being equal is not what it is all about. He did this so the blacks would not lose faith and eventually give their hopes up on being equal. They ended up focusing on themselves and their brothers and dealt with the system. They accepted themselves as blacks into this nation. In today's day and age for example, there are people who are still racist, people who don't accept blacks because of their color and culture, but today blacks understand that and accept it. This is what happened exactly back in the day, so in a way Booker T. Washington was right, blacks would never be accepted thoroughly into the country. Even though there are more rights now for blacks than there was back then there is still racism in this country. Most of the racism nowadays does not so much focus with blacks but mostly Indians and Mexicans that are now entering this country. In a way then Booker T. Washington's theory will most likely last throughout history (Johnson & Watson,

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