Comparison Of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois And Booker T. Washington

“Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about” (Brilliant). The different approach that William Edward Burghardt Du Bois and Booker Taliaferro Washington had to the issue of slavery in the South is not what makes them recognized today. They are recognized for their outstanding efforts to implement their ideas in the black society and set the precedent for others like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks to follow. Just like Brilliant stated, their “uncommon” attitudes is what indeed makes them “common” and remembered in society today. Ultimately, it is incontestable that Washington’s ideologies on how the newly freed African Americans should end Jim Crow laws were more substantial to them at that
Washington was born on April 5, 1856 in Virginia. The fact that he was born to slave subjected to heavy amounts of work on plantation fields. Although he aspired to be educated, the law in the 1800s stated that “any free person who shall hereafter teach any slave...to read or write...shall be liable to indictment in any court…” (General Assembly of the state of North Carolina). This was an obstacle to Washington’s education as it explains why thought that the Negroes acquiring vocational skills or skills that could be battered for were very important. According to his speech at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition, he states that “it is at the bottom of life we must begin and not the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities” (Washington 3). This shows that Washington thought that as newly freed slaves, the African Americans had to learn to use their hands and work on field’s first before aspiring to reach the top and be Congressmen or State legislators. This also showed that Washington did not want the African Americans to let their annoyance towards to the whites to deprive them from bettering their lives. Other aspects of Washington’s life also contributed to his ideologies of starting from the bottom before wishing to be on top. For instance, Washington had to work in salt furnaces in order to cater for the needs of his family (biography.com). It was not until 1872 that he attended the Normal Agricultural Institute and from there on, built up his educational career. Furthermore in his speech, Washington urged the Negroes to “Cast down [their] bucket where [they were]” (2). He wanted them to make use of their resources where they were based like opportunities such as; agriculture, mechanics and commerce (2). On the aspect of the blacks achieving social equality, Washington stated that “all the privileges that will come to [the Negroes], must be the result of severe and constant struggle, rather than of artificial