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E.B. DuBois arose as a prominent voice calling for more direct civil confrontation. It is impossible to judge who was right given the context in which the two sides were working, but an analysis of how history played out reveals both the wisdom and the shortcomings of Washington's approach to equality.
Given that it took half a century following Washington's death for the passage of the Civil Rights Act, especially when it is considered that the type of improvements Washington advocated and brought into existence were immediate in their impact, it is tempting to see his view as the entirely correct one. By receiving a better education, and through this better employment and business opportunities,...
This allowed them to build a power base of middle-class support that was eventually successful in achieving political equality.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, was passed as the result of the type of protest and confrontation advocated by DuBois and other of Washington' opponents. It is quite possible that equality would have been achieved sooner with a more consistently vocal demand for it. Still, in the context of the nineteenth century, Washington's approach had more immediate and measurable benefits.
Booker T. Washington's philosophy of slow improvement through education and economic opportunities met with a great deal of resistance in the antebellum period, especially around the turn of the century when W.E.B. DuBois arose as a prominent voice calling for more direct civil confrontation. It is impossible to judge who was right given the context in which the two sides were working, but an analysis of how history played out reveals both the wisdom and the shortcomings of Washington's approach to equality.
Given that it took half a century following Washington's death for the passage of the Civil Rights Act, especially when it is considered that the type of improvements Washington advocated and brought into existence were immediate in their impact, it is tempting to see his view as the entirely correct one. By receiving a better education, and through this better employment and business opportunities, the African-American community -- or those individuals who participated -- were able to begin carving out a better life for themselves, rather than waiting for equality to do so. This allowed them to build a power base of middle-class support that was eventually successful in achieving political equality.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, was passed as the result of the type of protest and confrontation advocated by DuBois and other of Washington' opponents. It is quite possible that equality would have been achieved sooner with a more consistently vocal demand for it. Still, in the context of the nineteenth century, Washington's approach had more immediate and measurable benefits.
Reconstruction: Successes and FailuresReconstruction after the Civil War was a mixed bag of successes and failures. If its primary aim was reintegration of the South into the US, it could be said to be a success. The problem with Reconstruction is that the architects of Reconstruction were themselves divided about how it should proceed. The Radicals wanted vengeance, whereas Lincoln (before he was murdered) called for forgiveness. The US government
Plessy challenged his arrest, maintaining that the railroads use of racially segregated cars violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court disagreed with Plessy's assertion. The Court determined that racial segregation did not imply that Blacks were inferior. Furthermore, the Court found that the facilities provided to Blacks and whites were of equal quality. Because of this, the Court determined that separate but equal facilities did not violate the letter
New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, is a professor at Union Theological Seminary, a New York Times columnist, and civil rights lawyer and advocate. I believe that the motive she had in writing her book was to explain how Jim Crow still exists in America even though people sometimes choose not to see it. It exists today in hidden and not-so-hidden ways, as it is
Vann Woodward and Jim Crow Evaluating the impact of Reconstruction social policy on blacks is more controversial due to the issue of segregation. Until the publication of C. Vann Woodward Strange Career of Jim Crow in 1955, the traditional view was that after the gains of Reconstruction, Conservative Democrats clamped down on the blacks by instituting an extensive system of segregation and disfranchisement (Woodward, 1974). Woodward, however, argued that there was
In this respect, that the former were stereotyped is evidenced by the fact that common perceptions excluded them as equal in societies. Moreover, because they were expected to be subordinated to the white society, it is understood that African-Americans were continued to be perceived as subservient. Since many had been slaves even before being sold to Americans, we can assume that white people misjudged African-Americans as second race, obedient
Moreover, the Court stated that affirmative action could not become a permanent policy and suggested that sometime in the future, when affirmative action would no longer be necessary to promote diversity, it would no longer be permissible for universities to employ affirmative action in their admissions process (See generally, Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)). Given the incredible advancements in the struggle for equality over the past half-century, it