Washington is remembered chiefly for the Atlanta Compromise address. In this speech, he called on white America to provide jobs and industrial-agricultural education for Negroes. In exchange, blacks would give up demands for social equality and civil rights. His message to the Negro was that political and social equality were less important as immediate goals than economic respectability and independence.
Dubois wanted nothing to do with this attitude and in his essay he clearly pointed to how he differed from Washington's point-of-view. DuBois said that Washington's accommodationist program asked blacks to give up political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education for Negro youth. He believed that Washington's policies had directly or indirectly resulted in three trends: the disfranchisement of the Negro, the legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro, and steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro. DuBois charged that Washington's...
Expressing the sentiment of the radical civil rights advocates, DuBois demanded for all black citizens 1) the right to vote, 2) civic equality, and 3) the education of Negro youth according to ability. Generally, DuBois opposed Washington's program because it was narrow in its scope and objectives, devalued the study of the liberal arts, and ignored civil, political, and social injustices and the economic exploitation of the black masses.
This article succeeded because of Dubois' ability to use language to make clear and precise distinctions between him and Washington. Dubois more militant stand did have an effect on how the civil rights movement was conducted demonstrating the influence this article had on society during the early part of the 20th century.
References
Dubois, WEB, (1903). "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others." Retrieved from http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/BTWdubois.htm
