Ben Miller

10/1/14
Blue Group
Washington and Du Bois Opinion Piece: Holes in the Dream
The right to vote. Civic equality. The education of youth according to ability. These
modest and benign liberties were those that, according to W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black
Folk, African-Americans should be in conscience bound to ask of this nation (19). In those
demands, Du Bois stands vindicated by history, but his one-dimensional vision for an equal
America lacked foresight into how a politically relevant black community could thrive
economically. Although correct in his assertion of the immediate necessity of black civil rights,
W.E.B. Du Bois, unlike his conservative contemporary Booker T. Washington, did not address
the economic ills of black society, ills that now hamper African-American freedom.
Born in Massachusetts in 1868, W.E.B. Du Bois was a Harvard-educated black scholar
who promoted the idea that, through emphatic activism and by unceasingly and firmly
opposing inequality, African-Americans could gain civil rights and political power. While Du
Bois urged aggressive action, Booker T. Washington, a former slave turned university founder,
accepted segregation, preferring to focus on economic growth and governmental adaptation to
drive change (PBS.org). In his autobiography Up From Slavery, he states that permanent
obtainment of civil rights must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of
artificial forcing (12).
The ideas of Washington and Du Bois differed in their tone, if not sentiment. Each
possessed what the other lacked; in Washington, realistic gradualism, and in Du Bois, the

immediacy that drives all social change. Each feared what the other valued, with Washington
fearing the repercussions of aggressive undertakings and Du Bois the danger of complacency and
being reduced to semi-slavery (Du Bois 27).
As a new generation of black leaders arose, the active dogma of Du Bois work drove the
emerging civil rights movement as the Washingtonian conservatism faded (PBS.org). In the
years since, the political gains made my African-Americans are stunning. In 1995, 25,000
African-Americans worked in higher education, the fastest growing quintile of the AfricanAmerican population was the wealthiest quintile, and blacks were represented in government as
never before (Frontline). However, in that same year, 45% of black children were born
impoverished, a black man had a greater chance of going to prison than going to college, and
barely three-quarters of African-Americans had high-school diplomas (Frontline).
A half-century of racial progression based on Du Bois principles continues to yield great
benefits for many, but still the black community struggles with poverty and inadequate
education. An overemphasis on political advancement has created a deficiency in economic
progress. It is only through the advancement of both causes, of both the principles of Du Bois
and Washington, that racial equality will draw closer to realization.

Works Cited
"Analysis." Frontline. PBS, 1995. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/economics/analysis.html>.
"Booker T. Washington." The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Educational Broadcasting Co, 2002.
Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_booker.html>.
Du Bois, W.E.B. "Of Booker T. Washington and Others." 1903. The Souls of Black Men. By
W.E.B Du Bois. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1903. Bartleby. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.bartleby.com/114/3.html>.
"Viewing the Class Divide." Frontline. PBS, 1995. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/economics/sam.html>.
"Vital Signs." Frontline. PBS, 1995. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/economics/vital.html>.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: A.L. Burt, 1901. Alcycone. Web. 30 Sept.
2014. <http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/slavery/xiv.html>.
W.E.B. Du Bois. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Educational Broadcasting Co, 2002. Web. 30
Sept. 2014. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_dubois.html>.