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W.E.B. Dubois: His Vision For Freedom Essay

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African Americans during the 1900s lived lives full of uncertainty. They were no longer slaves, but still looked upon by many as inferior to the white race. However in this period of tension, there were men who sought to bring their race to new heights. One of these men was W.E.B Du Bois. Few have influenced the lives of African Americans in such a way as W.E.B Du Bois. The vision he had for African Americans was one that many found great hope in. He sought for the day that his race for finally have civil equality in every aspect of life. In the time of Du Bois, African Americans may have been considered free but still lacked many civil liberties, that the whites were easily granted. One of the biggest civil liberties they lacked was …show more content…

If they spoke out long enough then the whites wold eventually have to change their beliefs and let the African American people have their voice in politics. Including the right to vote, Du Bois also hoped that his people would one day be able to achieve equality in education. To Du Bois “education [was] the development of power and ideal” (Niagara Movement 2). If African Americans could not reach this they would never be seen in the eyes of the whites as equal. He wanted his people to been seen as bright and capable. He refused the idea that little black boys and girls should be trained as nothing more than servants. African Americans deserved to get a real education yes, “[they were] workers, but work [was] not necessarily education” (Niagara Movement 2). To Du Bois education meant more than having the skill to work as a laborer it meant his race would have a brighter future ahead of them. They could take what they had learned in school and with it would be able to gain jobs, and a relatively satisfying living, they would be seen as more alike to the whites, they after all had the “right to know, to think, to aspire” (Niagara Movement 2). Without an education blacks were merely playing into the stereotype they had been cast. An education could change this they would no longer be seen as criminals. As Du Bois points out that out of

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