Nature of Politics

The period following the Reconstruction of the United States was a very difficult time for Blacks. After the North had fought for them to gain freedom from slavery, they were abandoned and were forced to fight for themselves. There was much ambivalence among blacks in regard to how they would go about achieving civil rights. During the end of the 19th century there were two black leaders who had completely different opinions on how blacks should accomplish these goals. Booker T Washington urged blacks to uplift themselves through vocational training and economical self-reliance. W.E.B Du Bois, on the other hand, was an advocate of complete racial equality. More recently, a similar dilemma occurred among blacks. Martin Luther King, Jr. Believed in acquiescence, while Malcolm X felt that blacks should attain equal rights 'by any means necessary', or, violence. During the Civil Rights movement, non-violence was the best way for blacks to attain equal rights because it was important that the white community respect them, which would have been impossible had they continued to be violent.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois had two very different ideas on how to accomplish their goals for equality. Washington urged blacks to accept there inferior social positions and strive to raise them economically. As stated in Document D, He believed that ' The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house.' Here he suggests that before blacks strive to attain complete equality, they should be more concerned with having the money and respect in order to do so.

He believed that for the time being, segregation was acceptable and suggested that blacks not concentrate on receiving a good education but to learn well to work with their hands. This was an appropriate because it was very realistic and set blacks up for a future of equality, even if it could not be attained at that time. The idealistic Du Bois, on the other hand, felt that the advancement of American blacks would best achieved through socialism. His main goals were for there to be total equality and for integration. As Stated in 'The Niagara Movement,' Voice of the Negro II, Du Bois said that, 'Negroes must insist continually...that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as ...