Taking Sides: Booker T. Washington & W.E.B Du Bois

When presented with Up From Slavery and The Souls of Black Folk, I would have to say that Booker T. Washington aligns more with the title of "conservative" and W.E.B Du Bois with "militant". Another notable pair of black men key to civil rights and attracting the classifications of “conservative” & “militant” would be Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr, with MLK being considered the more conservative in contrast to the more militant Malcom X, in light of this I find it peculiar that I see Du Bois reminding me of MLK. In contrast to Booker T. Washington,  Du Bois seems to emphasize urgency and less compromise when it comes to gaining first class citizenship. This emphasis on urgency seemed to remind me of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter From Birmingham Jail in which he states: "This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" -King

In Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, Washington seems to be very optimistic, showing that he believes that with an emphasis on education and hard work the formerly enslaved black race  in America will show their worth and gain more acceptance, “No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.” (Washington, p. 444)  W.E.B Du Bois makes it clear that he thinks that Washington has some important points, but Du Bois seems to be saying that much of what Washington suggests isn’t exactly practical and that instead of just showing worth and having a willingness to compromise, demands must be made because those that are oppressed can only rise as high as those with the power will let them:

"The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic No." (Du Bois, p. 466)

 I find myself siding more with W.E.B Du Bois and it’s hard for me to classify Du Bois as being “militant” because I tend to think of a militant person as someone so adamant in their beliefs that it can sometimes border on the unreasonable, and I don’t think anything that Dubois had to say or suggest seemed or had the potential to be unreasonable in the least.