Assess the view that Booker T. Washington was the most important leader in the development of AA civil rights
Assess the view that Booker T. Washington was the most important leader in the development of African American Civil rights in the period 1865 to 1915?
It could be argued that Booker T. Washington was the most important figure for developing black civil rights. Washington lived between 1856 and 1915 and was born into a slave family on a Virginia tobacco plantation. He was raised in a log cabin with no windows or beds. After the civil war and the emancipation proclamation his family moved to West Virginia where he worked as a coal miner and domestic servant while acquiring some form of schooling. When he was older he attended the Hampton Institute in 1872 and learnt various trades, his entrance examination consisted of cleaning a room. He then began a career as a teacher in West Virginia, then at the Hampton Institute and then was finally offered the position of founder and principal of Tuskegee in 1881 which was a college which had neither land nor buildings. Whether he was the most important leader is debatable as there were other leading figures trying to carve the way for black African American rights such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and Thaddeus Stevens. The aims and methods of Booker T. Washington is one way of assessing if he was the most important figure in the development of African American civil rights. He was a accommodationist, this is a theory in which he thought that African Americans should accept the situation for the time being and develop a pragmatic approach, demands for civil rights should be put on hold and a longer term strategy of developing their own community through economic development and educational advancement would come to the forefront. However this was attacked by Northern black militants who thought he “sought to little”. Washington’s views was criticised by another major black leader of the era, W.E.B Du Bois who believed that civil rights must be obtained by protest and that without political and legal rights;
It could be argued that Booker T. Washington was the most important figure for developing black civil rights. Washington lived between 1856 and 1915 and was born into a slave family on a Virginia tobacco plantation. He was raised in a log cabin with no windows or beds. After the civil war and the emancipation proclamation his family moved to West Virginia where he worked as a coal miner and domestic servant while acquiring some form of schooling. When he was older he attended the Hampton Institute in 1872 and learnt various trades, his entrance examination consisted of cleaning a room. He then began a career as a teacher in West Virginia, then at the Hampton Institute and then was finally offered the position of founder and principal of Tuskegee in 1881 which was a college which had neither land nor buildings. Whether he was the most important leader is debatable as there were other leading figures trying to carve the way for black African American rights such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and Thaddeus Stevens. The aims and methods of Booker T. Washington is one way of assessing if he was the most important figure in the development of African American civil rights. He was a accommodationist, this is a theory in which he thought that African Americans should accept the situation for the time being and develop a pragmatic approach, demands for civil rights should be put on hold and a longer term strategy of developing their own community through economic development and educational advancement would come to the forefront. However this was attacked by Northern black militants who thought he “sought to little”. Washington’s views was criticised by another major black leader of the era, W.E.B Du Bois who believed that civil rights must be obtained by protest and that without political and legal rights;