FREE ESSAY ON AFRICAN AMERICANS

AFRICAN AMERICANS

TERM PAPER
Life of African Americans in the period after the civil war was 
stimulatingly difficult. Among the host of challenges were the Black codes 
which made their life no better than it was before the civil war. The Congress
promised to emancipate African Americans from slavery, but it appeared as if
blacks were still deprived of their basic rights. They still did not achieve the 
status equal to that of the whites. During this time of political unrest two 
prominent African American spokespersons, Booker T. Washington and 
W.E.B Du bois arose and put forward their views about how this racial 
conflict could be ended and the blacks and whites could be united. They both 
strived real hard to help blacks achieve recognition of the civil and political 
promised by the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. 
They even wanted blacks to rise out of poverty. Although their final goals 
were the same, the route that they took to it differed drastically. Du Bois 
could be categorized as a person who was more liberal while Booker T. 
Washington chose to take the more conservative path. Knowing the 
differences between Washington's and W.E.B Du Bois's ideas as an African 
American living in the postwar south, I would follow Du Bois as his views 
were more satisfying and would prove to be a more effective way to pursue 
the goals of achieving recognition of the civil and political rights promised by 
the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and also to life the blacks out 
of poverty.
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were people with conflicting 
personalities. Washington's approach was more moderate as he seemed to 
be averse to rapid change. He believed in order for blacks to gain complete 
respect from the whites, they would have to live a life quite similar to the 
one they led in the period before the civil war. They would have to perform 
the same menial tasks. He believed that in this manner as soon as the 
economic condition of the South improved, blacks would be given equal 
status by everyone.
Booker T. Washington put forward a program of industrial 
education, conciliation of the south , and submission and silence as to civil 
and political rights ( W.E.B Du Bois , 31.) He believed that industrial 
education was extremely important because it was a way by which students 
could acquire knowledge as well as skill while working and earning money. It 
also gave students confidence and moral independence. Mr. Booker T. 
Washington wanted African Americans to compromise by giving up their 
civil and political rights . Adjustment and submission of blacks was 
represented by his program. (W.E.B Du Bois, 37.) Since he was a 
conservative , he desired that the African Americans also give up the ideas of
political power , civil rights and higher education. He tried to divert their 
attention to things such as earning money to support their families, 
reconcilement of Southern states etc.
On the other hand, W.E.B. Du Bois held views that were in 
contradiction to those of Booker T. Washington. Du Bois chose a more liberal 
path to achieve his goals. According to him African Americans should have 
used any means available to resolve the equality and cultural problems. He 
had complete confidence in the ability of African Americans and did not 
consider them inferior to whites and believed that they could govern 
themselves. Unlike Booker T. Washington whose program for 
emancipation focused more on work and money, W.E.B Du Bois aimed for 
more spiritualistic and honorary things. The period of time before W.E.B Du 
Bois came into the limelight, the blacks had suffered a great deal from the 
whites. They had been disfranchised, not been given the right to higher 
education and were considered inferior to whites. Du Bois wanted to change 
all this completely and thus his ideas appeared to be more radical and 
demanding. as compared to those of Booker T. Washington.
W.E.B Du Bois was an elitist who believed it was the intelligence and 
smartness of the African Americans that had help elevate the masses and the 
sole obstacles that had retarded their efforts were slavery and racial 
prejudice. He believed that the black race had been transplanted by the 
foolishness of its forefathers( W.E.B Du Bois, 38) Higher education and hard 
work could uplift them from this servitude and he knew that he could assist 
them through it.
W.E.B Du Bois's ideas and his way of pursuing goals was more 
convincing and appropriate . Unlike Booker T. Washington , Du Bois was 
more direct in his approach of achieving civil and political rights promised to 
the blacks. The environment in the post-emancipation south was not the 
same as before the civil war. Before the war, the blacks had not yet been 
declared emancipated so they did not expect themselves to be given the 
same status as that of the whites. But after the civil war, not been given 
their basic rights would aggravate them even more because now they were 
being deprived of something they lawfully possessed. Booker T. Washington 
emphasized that African Americans should work under whites, gain their 
trust and thus gradually they would attain their freedom. This was irrational 
because the blacks had waited long enough for the emancipation 
proclamation. They had suffered a lot of hardships through this period of 
time. And making them wait even longer through his slow process would 
aggravate them even more would cause them to burst into revolt. Booker T. 
Washington's program of achieving civil and political rights for the blacks 
also had its own shortcomings. His program was designed to please the 
North and invigorate the South. The Northern states had invested in 
Southern enterprises and so Washington's plan came as a welcome method 
of peaceful cooperation. Du Bois, unlike Washington did not preach 
surrendering to white supremacy. He insisted on self reliance and self- 
respect. He even believed that Booker T. Washington's idea of industrial 
training was pointless as he did not encourage higher education. Only if the 
black teachers were well educated could they teach in these industrial 
training schools, and Washington failed to understand that.
Booker T. Washington mentioned in his Atlanta compromise, The 
wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social 
equality is the extremist folly..... It is important and right that all privileges
of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for 
the exercises of these privileges ( Washington, 101.) It was cowardly of 
Booker T. Washington to say that his people were not striving for equality. 
He even said  The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth 
infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in the opera house. 
Washington was just trying to demand equality in vague terms. But instead 
he should have been more specific and demanded social equality. This is 
because social equality was what the blacks in the south were striving for 
and they would not settle for anything less than it.
Even though it is believed that Washington's program came as a 
relief to some southerners but yet it cannot be wholly accepted because it 
consists of less straightforward honesty and more of indiscriminate 
flattery. The black men of the post emancipation south were completely 
aware of the importance of voting. It was a way by which they could choose 
representatives who would better their conditions of living and work 
towards their welfare. W.E.B Du Bois put this insight into their minds and 
made them realize that they should rebel against servitude and fight for 
equal rights and status as the whites.