The start of equal urban education...
What's Beef? Dubois vs Washington
What’s Beef?...Dubois vs. Washington
We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a free American, political, civil and social, and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.
-- W.E.B. Du Bois
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.
-- Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. Dubois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963), historian David Levering Lewis wrote, "attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism— scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity." To battle each of these ails; Dubois believed that blacks…or Negros as were known then, should work towards assimilation into mainstream culture lead by the talented tenth. The talented tenth were the one in ten blacks that would lead the charge for social change through a classic education of sorts. Perhaps Dubois’ most recognizable collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk expounded his ideas on race and directly criticized the viewpoint of Booker T. Washington.
Booker T. Washington, (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915), was a man of humble beginnings born into slavery, freed in 1865, and walked from his family home in West Virginia to Hampton Institute where he worked on campus to pay his tuition. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, now University, in Alabama on the belief that blacks should learn to become farmers and tradesmen and teach other blacks to become farmers and tradesmen as a means to success for the race. His approach to black life was embraced by notable politicians and philanthropists of his time, and Washington found himself not only on the main stage of numerous civil rights issues, but also the recipient of substantial monetary contributions from his wealthy and powerful supporters.
These two definitely weren’t cool…as evidenced by their continuous, albeit indirect jabs at one another in their writings and speeches, but who had it right? Should we write off ninety percent of the black race as incapable of working toward social change and allow the remaining ten percent to shuttle us toward assimilation into the majority culture? Or should black and brown people forget the majority culture altogether and live a more segregated life?
What do you think?
We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a free American, political, civil and social, and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.
-- W.E.B. Du Bois
The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.
-- Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. Dubois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963), historian David Levering Lewis wrote, "attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism— scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity." To battle each of these ails; Dubois believed that blacks…or Negros as were known then, should work towards assimilation into mainstream culture lead by the talented tenth. The talented tenth were the one in ten blacks that would lead the charge for social change through a classic education of sorts. Perhaps Dubois’ most recognizable collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk expounded his ideas on race and directly criticized the viewpoint of Booker T. Washington.
Booker T. Washington, (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915), was a man of humble beginnings born into slavery, freed in 1865, and walked from his family home in West Virginia to Hampton Institute where he worked on campus to pay his tuition. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, now University, in Alabama on the belief that blacks should learn to become farmers and tradesmen and teach other blacks to become farmers and tradesmen as a means to success for the race. His approach to black life was embraced by notable politicians and philanthropists of his time, and Washington found himself not only on the main stage of numerous civil rights issues, but also the recipient of substantial monetary contributions from his wealthy and powerful supporters.
These two definitely weren’t cool…as evidenced by their continuous, albeit indirect jabs at one another in their writings and speeches, but who had it right? Should we write off ninety percent of the black race as incapable of working toward social change and allow the remaining ten percent to shuttle us toward assimilation into the majority culture? Or should black and brown people forget the majority culture altogether and live a more segregated life?
What do you think?
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