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Patrick Fox Green race. We have no right to sit silently while the seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children black and white. The biggest obstacles in the way of achieving equality were formed after the civil war and slaves were freed. Washington argues that the main problem was that Previous to 1865, these masses had an externally imposed life program For most southern Negroes slavery made true adulthood impossible.(Thorpe) Slaves did not know how to work and be free by themselves. This is why his rhetoric for industrial education rang true for so many. W.E.B Du Bois believed that the biggest impediment for African Americans was their limited education. He wanted African Americans to be able to fight back and he saw that they knew nothing more than what they were taught through slavery. He said, we ourselves are workers, but work is not necessarily education. Education is the development of power and ideal.(Du Bois) He means that without education, freedmen can go nowhere. Although each idealist had positive ideas, many were not what were needed. The Booker Washington philosophy and program were the first positive ones that ne masses of Negroes in America ever had.(Thorpe) This was an inspiration for many, but Washington had unrealistic views about most things. He supported industrial work, but the social system really did not allow for good jobs for African Americans. This gospel of work was no new one for the Negro. It is the Souths old slavery practice in a new dress.(Wells-Barnett) The south had restricting black codes, as well, that brought African Americans back into practical slavery. Racism was also at large. Washington was a proponent of cooperating with whites and not causing conflict or fight. With all of the prejudice, nothing would change, no matter how much money someone had. A critic said, Mr. Washington says: Give me money to educate the Negro, and when he is taught to work, he will not commit the crime for which the lynching is done. Mr. Washington knows that lynching is not invoked to punish crime, but color, and not even industrial education will change that.(Wells-Barnett) Du Bois had a more realistic approach that supported blacks fighting for their rights intellectually and becoming an equal to the white man. However,
Patrick Fox Green Du Bois had his flaws. He does not tell how educated African Americans should go about causing change in the society, just that they should. Major social justice is not executed until the 1960s, 80 years later. In conclusion, Washington had an unrealistic approach as to how the black race should save itself. Du Bois knew that in order to maintain social equality, African Americans need to learn to think intellectually and be educated well. In the words of Du Bois, We want our children trained as intelligent human beings and should be and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlingsThey have a right to know, to think, to aspire.(Du Bois)
Works Cited Booker T. and W.E.B the Debate. PBS Frontline. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html>. Du Bois, W.E.B. Autobiography. New York: New York International publishing, 1970. Print. pp.249-251 Thorpe, Earl. The Mind of the Negro. Baton Rouge: Ortleib Press, 1961. Print. p. 330 Washington, Booker, T. Up from Slavery, an Autobiography. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1902. Print. pp. 219-224 Wells-Barnett, Ida, B. Booker T. Washington and His Critics. World Today Apr. 1904: n. pag. Print. The negro problem for the negro point of view