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Segregation, the separation of races, was enacted at the turn of the 19th century mainly in the south to show white supremacy over black. This outraged many blacks because they believed that they would get equal rights and opportunities after the Civil War. Many civil rights activists had ways of getting to racial equality but the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were the most looked upon. Although Du Bois and Washington were aiming for the same goal, they had very different ideas for getting there. With the disagreement of such important figures in the fight for civil rights, African Americans were faced with the question of whether to use economic independence or protesting to get to racial equality? According to Booker T. Washington, economic stability and independence was the key. He claimed that there [seems] to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing. [These people have] little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the federal officials to create one for them.(Up From Slavery) Washingtons ideal pathway to equality was for African Americans to create a position for themselves using economic independence and become equal in any other way possible. On the contrary, W.E.B. Du Bois argued precisely the opposite. Du Bois believed that African Americans should protest for the government to do something about segregation. Du Bois stated that black men are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course [segregation] by all civilized methods [protest] These two activists came across their different ideas because of the different ideals they based them off of. According to Booker T. Washington Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work (Up from Slavery). This would explain why he believed that it was so important to work and make economic independence to get racial equality. Yet contrary to his ideas, there seemed to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing. (Washington, Up from Slavery) Based on his diction, one can tell that he believed that people rested on the government too much and used it as an excuse for not working. To Washington, the heavy
Asha Richards Green Works Cited Booker T. Washington. Google.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <https://sites.google.com/site/conservativequotedatabase/booker-t-washington>. Booker T. Washington Quotes. Goodreads.com. Goodreads, 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/84278.Booker_T_Washington>. W.E.B. Du Bois quotes. Goodreads.com. Goodreads, 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10710.W_E_B_Du_Bois>.