DuBois-vs-Washington

In writing this, I hope I have not overlooked the broader picture of Washington's dream. Overall, I do not think that W.E.B. Du Bois questions Booker T. Washington's work (Up Fro Slavery: An Auto Biography) as being a heralded work of literature. There are certain things that stand out in DuBois's piece that show some disagreement towards Washington, however. For some reason, I believe that although Du Bois seems to look at Washington as a colleague, it seems like the overall theme of Du Bois's peice was about Washington's alienation of the common Southern Negro. This may not be the case, but I had this feeling during Du Bois's piece that the majority of what Washington said was adored by the higher-ups and looked down upon by the middle to lower class. Booker T. Washingon had all these offers from the wealthy to come help them, when conversely, the common people felt alienated by him.

The first major thing that Du Bois disagrees with is the notion that Negroes should stay clear from voting and politics. The other two are their civil rights and the higher education of the youth. Booker T. Washington did have a method to his madness, however, by forgoing these three freedoms in the persuit of the advancement of the South. Indeed, the advancement of the South, technologically, industially, and economically was a major issue needing to be accomplished, the overall issue was that according the Du Bois, Washington was willing to give up too much freedom for the advancement of the South. The ironic thing about Washington's speech was that if things were to go as followed, it would almost be certain that the South would end up being like it was before the Civil War. What good is having your freedom when you don't have the right to vote, civil rights, and the opprotunity for higher education. To me, as well as Du Bois, I think that although Washington had the right idea for the "big picture", his one track mind made the advancement of the South a more important issue that the advancement of the American Negro.

A very interesting topic I came across in Du Bois's work is the comparison of Booker T. Washington to Socrates. On page 885, Dubois questions what Socrates and Saint Francis of Assisi would say to Washington's speech. Socrates looked down upon the people ruling themselves. He saw the population as ignorant. What is eerie about this comparison is, it is almost as if Du Bois is accusing Washington of being against his own people.