Social and Economic Equality of African Americans in America Essay

Social and Economic Equality of African Americans in America The press for social and economic par of abusive mint in America has been long and slow. It is sometimes amazing that whatsoever get along has been made in the racial equality arena at only every tentative step forward seems to be diluted by losses elsewhere. For every Stacey Koons that is convicted, there seems to be a Texaco executive time lag to send swarthys back to the past. Throughout the struggle for equal rights, there endure been courageous Black leading at the forefront of each discrete movement. From early activists such as Frederick Douglass, booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, to 1960s civil rights leaders and radicals such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, the progress that has been made toward full equality has resulted from the visionary leaders of these brave individuals. This does not imply, however, that there has ever been widespread agreement within the Black community on strategy or that the actions of prominent Black leaders have met with strong support from those who would get ahead from these actions. This report will examine the influence of two early sequence Black activists Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Through an analysis of the ideological differences amidst these two men, the writer will argue that, although they disagreed over the direction of the struggle for equality, the differences between these two men actually enhanced the status of Black Americans in the struggle for racial equality. We will look specifically at the events leading to and surrounding the Atlanta Compromise in 1895. In run to understand the differences in the philosophies of Washington and Dubois, it is useful to know something about their backgrounds. Booker T. Washington, born a slave in 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia, could be expound as a pragmatist. He was only able to attend enlighten three months out of the year, with the remaini ng nine months spent working in coal mines. He developed the idea of Blacks becoming skilled tradesmen as a useful stepping-stone toward respect by the white majority and eventual(prenominal) full equality. Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute and helped found the Tuskeegee Institute, a trade school for blacks. His essential strategy for the advancement of American Blacks was for them to pass enha... ...ecame more mainstream, it became increasingly conservative, and this did not please DuBois, who left the organization in 1934. He returned later but was eventually shunned by Black leadership both inside and outside of the NAACP, especially after he give tongue to admiration for the USSR. In the political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s, any hint of a pro-communist attitude--black or white--was unwelcome in any crowd with a national political agenda. We can see, then, that neither Washingtons strategy of calming nor DuBoiss plan for an elite Black intelligents ia was to become wholly lucky in elevating American Blacks to a position of equality. However, perhaps it was more than the leadership of any one Black man that hiked African Americans to motivation a full measure of social and economic equality. Perhaps the situation that there was a public dialogue in itself did more to encourage Black equality than the philosophy of any one prominent Black man. After all, concepts such as equality are exactly that concepts. As such, it up to each of us to decide how we see ourselves in coition to others superior or inferior, equal or not equal, the choice is ultimately our own.