A Comparison Between Booker T. Washington (19th century) and Martin Luther King Jr. (20th century)

W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were two very influential leaders in the black community during the late 19th century, early 20th century. However, they both had different views on improvement of social and economic standing for blacks. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put into practice his educational ideas at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. He believed that blacks should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder. Washington also urged blacks to accept racial discrimination for the time being, and once they worked their way up, they would gain the respect of whites and be fully accepted as citizens. W.E.B. Du Bois on the other hand, wanted a more

Booker T. Washington was a man who not only cared for himself but for the African-American Race. Washington intended to persuade African-Americans to empower themselves and to show positivity with whites. “...There are many instances of Negro tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses (Washington, pg.7).’’ Another piece of evidence that Washington stated is, “...cast down your buckets. (Washington, pg.219). He wanted white people to hire African-Americans”. He did well empower the African-American race. “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem…It is at the bottom we must begin and not

Booker T. Washington is one of the most respected and influential African American figures in American history, Mr. Washington was born into slavery and was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. His peaceful personality along with his exceptional education in many different studies turned him into a well-rounded individual. Washington wanted blacks and whites to become partners and strive for both races to succeed. He delivered his most famous speech in 1895 known as the “Atlanta Compromise”. In Atlanta Georgia, Mr. Washington expresses himself with exceptional rhetoric and tone throughout his speech. He states that African Americans should take benefit of what they know and endeavor

In Chapter three of The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Du Bois discusses Booker T. Washington and some of his accomplishments for African Americans and also criticizes some of his lack of understanding in his propaganda that he could have done more in his position to progress African Americans status instead of trying to be accepted by the white community. Washington has been criticized by Du Bois because of his “submission” to the white view on African Americans and their rights Du Bois calling him “the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis” (Du Bois, 1903).

In one site, Booker T. Washington, the most influential lieder of his period (1856-1915), who was born as a slave in 1856 (Virginia), who because of studying in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Learned the skills he needed to be respected by the withes society and gain considerable influence over the black people. Washington philosophy was based on self-improvement, education, accommodation and others. He preaches that African American rather than concentrate their effort in combating segregation, they should be focus in self-improvement, education and wealth. He encourages Young African American develop patience, commercial agricultural skills and others instead of instead of

Washington’s speech in Atlanta, Georgia is what made his career really take off for being an African American activist. His speech was directed towards both white and black races. He told them that both the races need to surround each other with one another and to try and overcome this inequality. In Clashes of Will it states, “Specifically Washington reminded the blacks in his audience that they must be prepared to start at the bottom as workers, not executives, as grade school teachers, not university professors; that they would have to earn the respect of whites rather than demand it as a right guaranteed by law….” Another accomplishment he set out for was creating the National Negro Business League. The organization promoted the businesses that were owned by African Americans and to help them feel that they were supported and protected. The main goal of the National Negro Business League was to advocate the sales of the Negro community businesses. Booker T. Washington’s baby was the Tuskegee Institution, a black college. Washington even offered DuBois a job three times to teach at the institution but he denied them all three times because he did not believe in the same morals as Washington. Washington was quite clever. When he had his hand in the businesses he managed to become familiar with wealthy white businessman that generously donated to the funds of the black education. One of the contributors was Andrew Carnegie, leading entrepreneur for the steel

Born a slave on a Virginia farm, Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915) rose to become one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the late 19th century. He was nine years old when the Civil War ended. He worked hard as a young child and at 16, he left home to attend Hampton Institute. One of the few black high schools in the South, it focused on industrial and agricultural training while maintaining an extremely structured curriculum that stressed discipline and high moral character. Washington thrived in that environment. He eventually went on to head a new school in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute was devoted to the training of black teachers, farmers, and skilled workers. Under his

In his 1901 autobiography Up From Slavery author, educator, and orator Booker T. Washington chronicles his rise from Virginia slave to President of Tuskegee Institute. The work outlines Washington’s roadmap for racial uplift which is centered on agricultural and industrial education. Washington argued that hard work and virtuous living — traits instilled African Americans during slavery— would demonstrate the value African Americans possessed to the South and the nation. Operating within the political realities of the time, Washington was able to mobilize a coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, white philanthropists, and politicians from the North and South to build Tuskegee Institute and his vision for the African American community. However, Washington’s strategy asked for African Americans to put aside immediate demands for voting and the end of racial segregation. Washington’s willingness to publicly side step these civil rights issues to advocate for slow progress towards true equality earned him powerful critics such as NAACP president W.E.B. DuBois and journalist William Trotter. By the time of Washington’s death in 1915, Jim Crow laws entrenched segregation throughout the South. Washington’s plan for racial uplift was pragmatic and realistic. However, his advocacy for dignity in labor played into white stereotypes that black men and women were made solely for labor.

Washington had three jobs before becoming a teacher, which consisted of carrying sacks of grains to a plantation mill, working in a salt mine with his step-father, and he was also a houseboy for Viola Ruffner in 1866. Viola saw the determination of wanting to learn in Booker’s face, in two years she grew to understand him. Eventually she allowed him to attend school for an hour a day during winter. When Booker T. Washington’s became a teacher, he taught African- Americans how to make themselves even more valuable to their community than they were recognized for. The name of the school was Tuskegee University, he was recommended by General Armstrong to run the school. Washington took on that responsibility and help raise money and promote the school, while doing that he reassured whites that the programs within this school would not threaten white supremacy or pose any economic competition to whites.

Booker T. Washington, a former slave and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, believed that African Americans needed to accept segregation and discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. The eventual acquisition of wealth and culture by African Americans would gradually win for them the respect and acceptance of the white community. This

Booker T. Washington was known as the premier of black activist. His theory for the African American progression or “racial uplift” was that African American’s would remain without objections and silence themselves regarding the issues of disenfranchisement and social segregation if whites supported the black progression in education, economics, and agriculture.

Booker T. Washington rose up from slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost educator and leader of black Americans at the turn of the century. He was born on April 5, 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia. As a child he worked in the salt mines but always found time for education. Washington constantly dreamed of college but as an African American this dream was nearly impossible. His scrupulous working habits from the mines set him out for college at the Hampton Institute. He graduated in 1876 and became a teacher at a rural school. After 2 years of teaching, he went back to the Hampton Institute and was a “professor” here for 2 more years. His next challenge would be at a new all black college, Tuskegee Institute where he would become president. Under Washington's leadership (1881-1915), Tuskegee Institute became an important force in black education. Washington won a Harvard honorary degree in 1891.

My perusing material concentrated on issues of authority and open appearance, the nature of his work and what impacts it had on the African-American people group, and shed light on the power battles among the African-American world class. There are parts of his story that may have made some consider Booker T. Washington as a man who didn't know who his racial loyalties were with, a man for whom white endorsement was everything. In any case, he achieved such an extensive amount which he set out to achieve and that's just the beginning, every bit of it, somehow specifically advantageous to the dark American people group, that the understanding said above would be hard to help. In any case, no judgments can be passed against this man would give adequate reason to reject his significance, his commitments to his public and in addition our present society, or his very much earned position in our history

When he was 25, Washington was recommended for the position of the first President at a new school for blacks called the Tuskegee Institute. He received this recommendation through the President of the Hampton Institute, which was the school that Washington attended. Even though such a position was usually held by whites, Washington was given the job in 1881 (Moore 25). Washington bought the grounds of a former plantation, and through student labor, the Institute was built. And on this plantation is where the current campus is located. The Tuskegee Institute became a platform for Washington’s success. As the Institute grew, so did Washington’s popularity. Washington was the first President at Tuskegee, and remained President until his death in 1915. His position as President would later help him when his views and methods of achieving racial equality were attacked by W.E.B Du Bois.

Booker T. Washington was one of the most well-known African American educators of all time. Lessons from his life recordings and novelistic writings are still being talked and learned about today. His ideas of the accommodation of the Negro people and the instillation of a good work ethic into every student are opposed, though, by some well-known critics of both past and current times. They state their cases by claiming the Negro’s should not have stayed quiet and worked their way to wear they did, they should have demanded equal treatment from the southern whites and claimed what was previously promised to them. Also, they state that Washington did not really care about equality or respect, but about a status boost in his own life. Both