The Struggle For Social and Economic Equality in America

Discrimination The dispute for social and economic equality of sable people in the States has been long and slow. It is sometimes amazing that any progress has been made in the racial equality arena at altogether every(prenominal) in question(p) step forward seems to be diluted by losses elsewhere. For every Stacey Koons that is convicted, there seems to be a Texaco executive waiting to send unrelentings backb 1 to the past. Through start the skin for equal rights, there have been courageous stark leaders at the forefront of each discrete movement.From early activists much(prenominal) as Frederick Douglass, booker T. cap, and W. E. B. DuBois, to 1960s civil rights leaders and radicals such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, the progress that has been made toward across-the-board equality has resulted from the visionary lead of these brave individuals. This does not imply, however, that there has ever been widespread agreement in spite of appearan ce the Black community on strategy or that the actions of prominent Black leaders have met with strong support from those who would benefit from these actions.This report ordain examine the influence of twain early era Black activists Booker T. chapiter and W. E. B. DuBois. Through an analysis of the ideological differences between these two men, the generator will argue that, although they disagreed over the direction of the debate for equality, the differences between these two men actually enhanced the stead of Black Americans in the struggle for racial equality. We will look specifically at the events leading to and border the battle of Atlanta Compromise in 1895. In order to understand the differences in the philosophies of chapiter and Dubois, it is utilitarian to know something about their backgrounds.Booker T. Washington, born a slave in 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia, could be described as a pragmatist. He was only able to attend schooltime three months out of t he year, with the re of importing nine months spent working in coal mines. He developed the idea of Blacks becoming skilled tradesmen as a useful stepping-stone toward respect by the face cloth majority and eventual full equality. Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute and helped found the Tuskeegee Institute, a trade school for low-spiriteds.His essential strategy for the advancement of American Blacks was for them to achieve enhanced status as skilled tradesmen for the present, then using this status as a platform from which to reach for full equality freshr. Significantly, he argued for submission to the ovalbumin majority so as not to offend the power elect. though he preached appeasement and a hands off attitude toward politics, Washington has been accused of wielding imperious power over his people and of consorting with the white elite group.William Edward Burghardt DuBois, on the other hand, was more than of an idealist. DuBois was born in Massachusetts in 1868, notwithstanding after(prenominal)wards the end of the Civil War and the official end of slavery. A gifted scholar, formal tuition played a much greater role in DuBoiss life than it did in Washingtons. After becoming a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Fisk and Harvard, he was the first Black to earn a Ph. D. from Harvard in 1895. DuBois wrote over 20 books and more than 100 scholarly articles on the historical and sociological nature of the Black experience.He argued that an educated Black elite should lead Blacks to liberation by advancing a philosophic and intellectual offensive against racial discrimination. DuBois forwarded the bloodline that The Negro problem was not and could not be kept distinct from other reform movements. . . DuBois fortunate immediate social and policy-making integration and the higher education of a Talented Tenth of the black population.His main interest was in the education of the group leader, the man who sets the ideas of the community where h e lives. . . To this end, he organized the Niagara movement, a meeting of 29 Black business and professional men, which led to the physical composition of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The crux of the struggle for the ideological center of the racial equality movement is perhaps lift out exemplified in Mr. DuBoiss influential The Souls of Black Folk. In it, he makes an impassioned parametric quantity for his vision of an educated Black elite.DuBois also describes his opposition to Booker T. Washingtons Atlanta Compromise as follows Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the one-time(a) attitude of adjustment and submission According to DuBois, Washington broke the play set by his predecessors Here, led by Remond, Nell, Wells- Brown, and Douglass, a new termination of self-assertion and self- development dawned. But Booker T. Washington arose as basically the leader not of one race but of twoa compromiser between the South, the N orth, and the Negro. DuBois reported that Blacks resented, at first bitterly, signs of compromise which surrendered their civil and policy-making rights, even though this was to be exchanged for larger chances of economic development. DuBoiss period of time and, according to him, the collective opinion of the majority of the Black community, was that self- respect was more important than any potential future economic benefits. Before Washingtons yielding stance gained a foothold, the assertion of the manhood rights of the Negro by himself was the main reliance. In other words, DuBois resented what he saw as Washington merchandising Black pride Mr. Washingtons programme naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as evidently approximately completely to overshadow the higher aims of life.The compromise included, in DuBoiss words, that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, First, political power, Second, mechan ical puppy love on civil rights, Third, higher education of Negro youth,and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. The final point comprised the centrepiece both of Washingtons strategy for the ultimate redemption of Black Americans and of DuBoiss condemnation of that strategy. Indeed, Washington backed up his assertions by founding the Tuskeegee Institute as a trade school for young Black men.DuBois could not abide this compositors case of appeasement. In his mind, this step was tantamount to the Black community telling the white community that, henceforth, Blacks would cease pretending to be equal to whites as tender-hearted cosmoss rather, they would accept an overtly inferior social status as being worthy of maintaining the white majoritys physical world, but unworthy of adjust equality, of conducting socio-cultural talk of with the mainstream society. The paradox must(prenominal) have been maddening for both men, especially Mr. Washington.He no doubt understood that, as a group, Blacks could never consent to progress to the point of equality from their position of abject poverty. Moreover, without skills, their hopes of escaping their economic lower status were indeed scant. Washingtons plan for blacks to at least become skilled artisans and tradesmen must have seemed logical to him from the standpoint of improving the economic lot of the mediocre Black man. At the same time, he must have cognise that, by accepting inferiority as a de- facto condition for the replete(p) race, he may have broken the black spirit forever.In considering this matter, the writer is reminded of more recent events in American historythe approving action flap that occurred after Clarence Thomass appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court, for example. Mr. Thomas, clearly a beneficiary of affirmative action, announced that he was nonetheless opposed to it. His argument was that if he had not been eligible for benefits under affirmative action programs, he would have still achieved his current position in the inner class of this societys white power elite. Similarly, Booker T. Washington enjoyed access to the power elite of his time, but one must wonder whether President Roosevelt, for example, in his interactions with Mr. Washington, was not merely using the situation for public relations value.Mr. Washington was intimate with Roosevelt from 1901 to 1908. On the twenty-four hour period Roosevelt took office, he invited Washington to the White House to advise him on political appointments of Negroes in the south. After all, he did not become a universal president by being oblivious to such political maneuvering. perchance Mr. DuBois was the more prescient visionary.Perhaps he understood what Mr. Washington did not, that after the critical historical momentum toward social acceptance that had been established former to the late nineteenth century, if political pres sure were not maintained, the cause of true equality would be lost forever. Moreover, DuBois understood that equality would not be earned through appeasement. From our perspective of over 100 years, we must control that he may have been right. For example, in the aftermath of the Atlanta shambles of September 22, 1906 and a similar incident in Springfield, Illinois, it was clear to almost all the players that the tide was running strongly in favor of jib and militancy.For six days in August, 1908, a white mob, made up, the press said, of many of the towns best citizens, surged through the streets of Springfield, Illinois, killing and wounding scores of Blacks and impetuous hundreds from the city. However, it later turned out that DuBois was considered to be too extreme in the other direction. For example, as the NAACP became more mainstream, it became increasingly conservative, and this did not please DuBois, who left(p) the organization in 1934. He returned later but was even tually shunned by Black leadership both inside and outside of the NAACP, especially after he voiced admiration for the USSR.In the political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s, any hint of a pro-communist attitudeblack or whitewas unwelcome in any group with a field political agenda. We can see, then, that neither Washingtons strategy of appeasement nor DuBoiss plan for an elite Black intelligentsia was to become wholly successful in elevating American Blacks to a position of equality. However, perhaps it was more than the leadership of any one Black man that encouraged African Americans to demand a full measure of social and economic equality.