African Americans in the Progressive Era

Booker T. Washington & the Tuskegee Institute Born a slave in Virginia Named first director of Tuskegee Institute – Students literally built their own school, brick by brick – Emphasis on basic education & marketable trade skills Up from Slavery Atlanta Compromise “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Argued that African Americans in the South had to accept temporary loss of civil rights- be “as separate as fingers on the hand” African Americans would prove their worth to white people by being honest & hardworking Then white people would accept African Americans as equals Trivia: Although he publically argued against agitating for political and social equality, Washington spent much of his personal fortune funding lawsuits against segregation.

W.E.B. DuBois & the “Talented Tenth” Graduate from Harvard University; first African-American to earn a Ph.D. there Co-Founder of the NAACP Believed that the most intelligent African Americans should achieve success and lift the race up with them Souls of Black Folk Niagara Movement Civil rights movement founded by DuBois and other activists Opposed racial segregation Demanded an end to policies that kept African Americans from voting Urged demonstrations and peaceful protest Successfully lobbied against state segregation laws in Massachusetts

Washington & DuBois Booker T. Washington W.E.B. DuBois

Washington vs. DuBois Washington “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.” DuBois “In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached has been that manly self- respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.”

Marcus Garvey & the “Back to Africa” Movement Garvey felt that African- Americans could never achieve equality in the U.S. – Advocated for economic independence Encouraged African Americans to emigrate to Africa – Led to development of Liberia (founded in 19 th century) Founded Black Star Line – Convicted of mail fraud & deported

Women Reformers Ida B. Wells-Barnett – Muckraker influenced by lynching deaths of 3 friends – “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” Mary Church Terrell – Worked to end racism in women’s suffrage movement – National Association of Colored Women – In later years, fought against Jim Crow laws