To the right is a letter that W.E.B Du Bois wrote to Booker T. Washington, congratulating him on his speech in Atlanta. I find this interesting since we have been discussing how Du Bois challenged Washington's opinions on African American advancement. While Washington believed that African Americans should concentrate on social and economic improvement(assuming political rights would follow), Du Bois had the opposite idea. Both Washington and Du Bois had the same goal in trying to advance African Americans. Setting their differences aside, I find it honorable that rivals can still congratulate each other on their accomplishments, even though they may disagree.(Let me heartily congratulate you on your phenomenal success at Atlanta-it was a word fitly spoken.)
I really appreciate that you found a letter written to Washington from Du Bois, I think it’s a really interesting primary source. I agree that it is honorable for Du Bois to take the time to congratulate Washington for his Atlanta speech, even though he disagrees with him. Du Bois does state in his book, The Souls of Black Folk, that Washington was the greatest thing that happened to the colored race after 1876. I think that is a statement that shows great respect for him. But I think Du Bois is more like an antithesis that disagrees with the submissive approach of Washington’s doctrine but I don’t really feel that either Washington or Du Bois see each other as rivals. Like you mention, they both are trying to improve their race, their approach and point of view of how to achieve that goal is what is different. As it was mentioned in class, Du Bois’s doctrine needs people like Washington to bounce their ideas from, but I think that it is the pattern of ideas and history, so I tend to enjoy that fact.
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool, while reading DuBois he sounds as if he thinks Washingtons made several mistakes however, they still have the same goal, as said upon, of improving African Americans as a whole in many different ways. Even though they both took a different approach on how to make improvements I think the differences that they have are valid considering if DuBois would have just agreed with everything Washington said he would not have made a very big impact on the African American race. However, considering the big role they both did play on the African American race this letter is very important, in the sense that they show people to support each other no matter if your views are the same or completely different.
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