In the early days of America slavery was part of everyday life, the economy was basically driven by the work that the slaves put in. For over two hundred years people used slaves for farming and tending to their homes. Then in 1865, almost immediately after the Civil War ended, the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in the confederate states ending slavery in the United States once and for all. Although slavery was abolished, there were people in Southern States who were still not comfortable with the African American population having the same rights as the white people. That’s when they put in the Jim Crow laws, which segregated the white and black people, making them “separate but equal.” Around this time, two very important African leaders emerged, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. These two leaders had the same goal in mind but had two very different ways to go about it. There have been many arguments as to whose way of doing thing was better, whose way accomplish more for the advancement of the African populace. Was accepting the white people as the superior people and living under their thumb the right thing? Or did African Americans have the right to demand true equality and Civil Rights?
Booker T. Washington was born sometime in 1856, the actual date is unknown, to a slave mother and a white father, whose name is unknown, in Virginia. The early part of Booker’s childhood was difficult to say the least. Born a slave, Booker described his life as one of “deprivation and struggle.” Slaves during this era were given only a first name but when his mother married a slave named Washington Furguson, Booker took his stepfathers first name Washington as his surname. After the Civil War and the slaves were freed Booker moved to West Virginia with his mother as to meet up with his stepfather who had found a job. Booker had many hard jobs while simultaneously going to school. In 1872 he went on five hundred mile trek to Virginia so he could enroll in...