Washington V. Dubois

Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Dubois Debate * the debate over the best course for racial advancement in America by 1905 was run by: * Booker T. Washington * Booker T. Washington did not think that social equality of the races was as important as economic equality. He said: * "The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing." -- Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895. * W. E. B. Du Bois * Du Bois later called Washington's Atlanta Exposition Address the "Atlanta Compromise," because it compromised social equality of the races in order to gain economic equality. Du Bois wrote to Washington and said of the Atlanta Address: * "My Dear Mr. Washington: Let me heartily congratulate you upon your phenomenal success in Atlanta -- it was a word fitly spoken."-- Letter, Du Bois to Washington, Sept. 24, 1895
Education:
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: * Leading promoter of "industrial education." In addition to basic skills like reading and writing, it was important to learn a trade that would lead to a real job. * "Many have had the thought that industrial training was meant to make the Negro work, much as he worked during the days of slavery. This is far from my idea of it. If this training has any value for the Negro, as it has for the white man, it consists in teaching the Negro how rather not to work, but how to make the forces of nature -- air, water, horse-power, steam, and electric power -- work for him.... There should be a more vital and practical connection between the Negro's educated brain and his opportunity of earning his daily living."-- Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 1899 * "There is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest