Blog #10

 

 

      Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were both important figures for the furtherment of educational opportunities for African Americans. Washington’s approach to educational opportunities was born of the need for social change when lynchings reached a new height in the South. Washington claimed that through education and entrepreneurship, African Americans would be able to make a larger mark on their communities and would be able to work towards social equality. This approach relied on participation with systems put in place by white leaders in the South.

 

     Dubois held a very different approach to this issue. He was a very strong proponent of political involvement and vocally challenged Jim Crow laws, lynching, and discrimination. Dubois was also a co-founder of the NAACP. Dubois sought to increase political representation for African Americans in the South so as to oppose the discriminatory laws and traditions that prevented larger movements towards social equality. While Washington and Dubois held different perspectives regarding the uses for education as an agent of freedom, both men were proponents of wider access to education, and both of them contributed towards opening up new opportunities for African Americans.