Background for benchmark writing test Who was a stronger Advocate for African Americans, Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. DuBois? Background for benchmark writing test

Background… Civil War 1861-1865. Reconstruction 1865-1877: many legal advances for African Americans (i.e., 13, 14, 15 Amendments; African Americans elected to office in South). But in 1876, North pulls its troops out and white-supremacist Democrats take over. Result: Most African Americans became sharecroppers. Laws put in place to prevent African Americans from voting (e.g., poll tax, literacy). KKK had support of local officials and terrorized anyone who voted Republican. Lynching became a widespread form of terrorism against African Americans, especially those who gained an economic/ social foothold. Jim Crow segregation: separate=equal upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Against this historical context, two leaders emerged: Booker T Against this historical context, two leaders emerged: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois: Educational opportunities were limited at this time. Harvard University admitted a few (W.E.B. DuBois) Most had to attend all black institutions Examples: Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute in Virginia (“normal institute” was a teacher training institution) and the Tuskegee Institute est. by Booker T. Washington.

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington: Opened Tuskegee Institute in 1881 with four inadequate buildings and 30 students Grew the institution to 46 buildings and more than 1,400 students by 1900 Tuskegee focused on industrial, agricultural, and manual education to prepare blacks for jobs in trades that would give them financial security.

Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington’s speech in 1895 at the Atlanta Exposition Proposed a compromise for blacks and whites Suggested that African Americans be guaranteed economic opportunities and in exchange they would accept white domination and the racial segregation of the current “Jim Crow” laws. Expected that slow economic progress by blacks would earn black political and social equality. Behind the scenes, Washington also worked against harsh anti-black laws and organized African American voters.

W.E.B. DuBois

W.E.B. DuBois Advocated a much more aggressive approach to securing civil rights than that offered by Washington. Educated at Fisk University in Tennessee, an all black institution, and then at University of Berlin and Harvard. Specialized in sociology. In 1903, his book “The Souls of Black Folks” attacked Washington’s Atlanta Compromise and argued that African Americans had an obligation to insure the proper training of their “talented tenth”. By this he meant that the best of the African american race should be prepared for leadership roles with an intellectual education equal to anything that upper class whites might receive. With this education, they could become the leaders of their race.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) After the Supreme Court made it impossible for Congress to pass laws that punished private citizens for acts of racial discrimination in the 1883 Civil Rights Cases, Southern states immediately began to pass laws that ordered the racial segregation of whites and blacks. In 1890 in Louisiana such a law was passed by the state legislature ordering separate rail cars for the two races. LA blacks led by citizens of New Orleans decided to challenge the constitutionality of this racist law. Homer Plessy agreed to be arrested and tried for violating this act.

The Plessy v. Ferguson case reached the Supreme Court in 1896 where a seven-justice majority ruled that the segregation law of LA was entirely constitutional so long as it provided accommodations which were “separate, but equal.” Only Justice Harlan dissented in this case arguing that the LA law was a “badge of inferiority” placed on blacks by the state government and a clear violation of the Constitution. Interestingly, Harlan himself had been a Kentucky slave owner before the Civil War, though he fought on the Union side of that cause. Plessy v. Ferguson became the foundation for the many “Jim Crow” laws passed by southern state legislatures to keep blacks in a position of inferiority to whites.

Jim Crow America By 1900, 8 out of 10 African Americans lived in rural environments, mostly in the South. Segregation was the rule in housing, schools, transportation facilities, hospitals and hotels. Violence against blacks was common with more than a thousand African American lynched between 1900 and 1914. Under the “separate but equal” accommodations rule of the Plessy case, in 1910 the state of South Carolina spent an average of $13.98 annually for the education of white children, but only $1.13 for black children.

Niagara Movement and NAACP In 1905, a group of African Americans led by W.E.B. DuBois met in Niagara Falls, NY (on the Canadian side as no hotel on the American side would admit them) to organize the Niagara Movement. This movement demanded equal rights and education for African Americans. In 1910, in response to a number of violent lynchings of African Americans, reformers like Jane Addams and John Dewey issued a call for the formation of a new organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP quickly became the most important civil rights group in the country with 50 branches and more than 6,000 members in 1914. W.E.B. DuBois was intimately involved with this organization.

Washington v. dubois Document Activity…you will use these documents for your benchmark writing test.