The Struggle For Social and Economic Equality in America

Discrimination The struggle for social and sparing comparison of mordant people in America has been long and slow. It is sometimes astound that any progress has been make in the racial fittingity battleground at all every tentative step forward seems to be diluted by losses elsewhere. For every Stacey Koons that is convicted, on that point seems to be a Texaco executive waiting to send sorrys back to the past. Through expose the struggle for equal rights, there start out been courageous obtuse leaders at the avant-garde of each discrete movement.From early activists such as Frederick Douglass, booking agent T. upper-case letter, and W. E. B. DuBois, to mid-sixties civil rights leaders and radicals such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, the progress that has been made toward bountiful equivalence has resulted from the visionary leadership of these brave individuals. This does not imply, however, that there has ever been widespread agreement within the Black connection on strategy or that the actions of prominent Black leaders film met with secure support from those who would benefit from these actions.This report will examine the influence of both early era Black activists Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. Through an depth psychology of the ideological differences between these two men, the writer will argue that, although they disagreed everyplace the direction of the struggle for equality, the differences between these two men actually raise the status of Black Americans in the struggle for racial equality. We will research specifically at the events leading to and surrounding the Atlanta Compromise in 1895. In order to understand the differences in the philosophies of Washington and Dubois, it is useful to cognize something about their backgrounds.Booker T. Washington, born(p) a slave in 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia, could be described as a pragmatist. He was only suitable to attend school three mon ths out of the year, with the remaining nine months fatigued working in coal mines. He developed the idea of Blacks bonnie skil lead tradesmen as a useful stepping-st 1 toward respect by the snow-covered majority and eventual full equality. Washington worked his way done Hampton comprise and helped found the Tuskeegee Institute, a trade school for dispiriteds.His essential strategy for the procession of American Blacks was for them to achieve enhanced status as skilled tradesmen for the present, past using this status as a platform from which to reach for full equality later. Significantly, he argued for ledger entry to the white majority so as not to offend the office staff elite. 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.William Edward Burghardt DuBois, on the other hand, was to a greater extent of an idealist. DuBois was born in M assachusetts in 1868, just subsequently the end of the polite War and the official end of slavery. A gifted scholar, formal instruction played a much greater role in DuBoiss breeding 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 personality of the Black experience.He argued that an educated Black elite should lead Blacks to passing by advancing a philosophical and intellectual offensive against racial discrimination. DuBois forwarded the argument that The Negro problem was not and could not be kept distinct from other reform movements. . . DuBois favored immediate social and policy-making integration and the higher(prenominal) 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 he lives. . . To this end, he organized the Niagara movement, a meeting of 29 Black business and professional men, which led to the formation of the National Association for the improvement of Colored People (NAACP). The crux of the struggle for the ideological center of the racial equality movement is perchance best exemplified in Mr. DuBoiss influential The Souls of Black Folk. In it, he makes an impassioned argument 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 old attitude of adjustment and submission According to DuBois, Washington broke the mold set by his predecessors Here, led by Remond, Nell, Wells- Brown, and Douglass, a new period of self- confidence and self- development dawned. scarce Booker T. Washington arose as essentially the leader not of one race but of twoa compromiser between the South, the North, and the Neg ro. DuBois reported that Blacks resented, at first bitterly, signs of compromise which surrendered their civil and semipolitical rights, even though this was to be exchanged for larger chances of economic development. DuBoiss point and, according to him, the collective purview of the majority of the Black community, was that self- respect was more important than any potential future economic benefits. Before Washingtons conciliatory 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 selling Black pride Mr. Washingtons political platform naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and capital to such an extent as apparently almost completely to occult 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, insistence on civil rights, Third , higher education of Negro youth,and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, the accretion of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. The final point comprised the centerpiece both of Washingtons strategy for the supreme 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 new-fashioned Black men.DuBois could not abide this type of appeasement. In his mind, this step was tantamount(predicate) to the Black community telling the white community that, henceforth, Blacks would cease belie to be equal to whites as human macrocosms rather, they would accept an overtly indifferent social status as being worthy of maintaining the white majoritys tangible world, but unworthy of true equality, of conducting socio-cultural discourse with the mainstream society. The paradox mustiness put one over been maddening for both men, especially Mr. W ashington.He no doubt understand that, as a group, Blacks could never hope to progress to the point of equality from their position of abject poverty. Moreover, without skills, their hopes of escaping their economic inferiority were indeed scant. Washingtons plan for blacks to at least experience skilled artisans and tradesmen must have seemed logical to him from the viewpoint of improving the economic lot of the average Black man. At the equal time, he must have realized that, by accepting inferiority as a de- facto condition for the entire race, he may have broken the black spirit forever.In considering this matter, the writer is reminded of more novel events in American historythe affirmative action flap that occurred after Clarence Thomass appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court, for example. Mr. Thomas, clearly a beneficiary of affirmative action, inform 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 veritable position in the inner circle 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 fleck for public relations value.Mr. Washington was intimate with Roosevelt from 1901 to 1908. On the day Roosevelt took office, he invited Washington to the vacuous House to advise him on political appointments of Negroes in the south. After all, he did not become a popular president by being oblivious to such political maneuvering. by chance Mr. DuBois was the more prescient visionary.Perhaps he understood what Mr. Washington did not, that after the critical historical neural impulse toward social acceptance that had been established prior to the late nineteenth century, if political pressure were not maintained, the cause of true equality would be disconnected forever. Moreover, DuBois understood that equality would not be earned through appeasement. From our stead of over 100 years, we must admit that he may have been right. For example, in the aftermath of the Atlanta Massacre of September 22, 1906 and a equal incident in Springfield, Illinois, it was clear to almost all the players that the tide was hurry strongly in favor of protest 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 driving 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 the organization in 1934. He returned later but was eventually shunned by Black leadership both inside and outside of the N AACP, especially after he voiced marvel for the USSR.In the political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s, any bakshis of a pro-communist attitudeblack or whitewas unwelcome in any group with a national political agenda. We can see, then, that uncomplete 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 encourage African Americans to demand a full measure of social and economic equality.