Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were both early supporters of the civil rights movement who offered strategies to stop discrimination, experienced by black men and women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although they had that in common, the two men had almost complete opposite ways to approach that goal. Washington, a man condoning economic efficiency had a more gradual approach. On the other hand, Du Bois focused on immediate and total equality both politically and economically. Washington offered an effective and appropriate proposition for the current time whereas Du Bois’s approach was to work on things for the future’s benefit. Both have equal influence over African Americans in politics, but Washington always seemed to have the high card in white politics. Washington’s proposal excelled in reference to education while Du Bois was noted for achieving true respect from white Americans.
Du Bois urged African Americans to involve themselves in politics. Gaining power would be essential to immediate beseeching of rights. Political association would prevent blacks from falling behind because it would give them ground in the basic things of life. Du Bois also directly challenged Washington when he stated that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them. Du Bois felt that Negroes must insist continually, in and out of season, kind of like nagging. Washington avoided political involvement.
…Washington believed that if blacks focused their attention on striving economically, they would eventually be given the rights they deserved. To do this, he encouraged attending trade schools like the ones he worked with. The Tuskegee Institute of Alabama, which he founded, was where no time was wasted on dead languages or superfluous studies of any kind. Then he proposed working wither industrially or agriculturally since their education would be based on what is...