Protest Versus Accommodation: the W.E.B. Du Bois & Booker T. Washington Debate

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Mervy Michael HIST 366-001/ Prof. Moran Final Paper 12/2/14 Topic 2: Protest versus Accommodation: The W.E.B. Du Bois & Booker T. Washington Debate Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois are revered as two of the most important figures in black history. Booker T. Washington was born a slave to a black mother and white father. Throughout his whole life he was quite poor and from a young age worked in salt mines. Through a scholarship, however, he was able to study at Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute of Virginia and years later he graduated in 1875. Four years later he founded Tuskegee University. [][][] W. E. B. Du Bois on the other hand though was born on Feb. 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelors of Arts from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1888. And in 1891 Du Bois received his master of arts and in 1895 his Doctorate in history from Harvard College. [] [] The rivalry between W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington started early on. Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University talked about this in an article he wrote titled “The Origins of a Bitter Intellectual Battle ”. On July 27, 1894, W.E.B. Du Bois sent a letter to Booker T. Washington, asking if there was a job opening for him at Tuskegee University. A month later Booker T. Washington replied and said that there was a position for a math professor but by then W.E.B DuBois had already accepted a position at Wilberforce University. A couple years went by and by 1906 both W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington had become polar opposites. [ ] As is evident from his Atlanta Compromise speech Booker T. Washington advocated for slow accomodationism, which meant he did not want African Americans to violently protest their rights, and that they should just accept where they stand in society. W.E.B DuBois on the other hand favored violent

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