preview

Racial Leadership And The African American Political Thought From B Du Bois

Decent Essays

Throughout the history of United States we have had different views of racial leadership in Afro American political thought from W.E.B Du Bois to Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey who sought to lead African-Americans from the oppression they face. All three of these historical figures had different views on racial leadership and politics as well as the vision and direction that racial emancipation should take. W.E.B Du Bois argued that African-Americans should political, economic, and social freedom and advancement. Booker T. Washington was more conservative in his approach in that African-Americans should first and foremost focus on economically advancing themselves first in order to seek equality in other areas. Marcus Garvey had a …show more content…

A good example of part of the current civil rights concept is that fight for reparations with arguments for it being that it will “encourage innovation, creation, and development of small business” (Muhammad 4). As we can see the civil rights concept of racial leadership is largely shaped by class and economic politics. The impact of the civil rights concept towards racial liberation has been well documented throughout U.S history due to its importance. Booker T. Washington had a different concept of the type of liberation African-Americans should seek that can be considered fairly different from other concepts of racial leadership in that he believed in economic autonomy being the best path towards racial emancipation. Washington he was born into slavery and he didn’t hold whites in contempt. On the contrary he believed that because of slavery African Americans were in a “stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously” (Washington 8) than other black people around the world. Washington was a strong proponent of industrial education for African-Americans and thought they should learn skills and trades and work hard instead of pushing for civil rights right away. Washington believed that African-Americans should seek

Get Access