During the time between 1895 and 1920, black Americans experienced many social, economic and political difficulties. Many African Americans supported the program of Booker T. Washington, the most prominent black leader of the late 19th and early 20th century, who counseled them to focus on modest economic goals and to accept temporary social discrimination. Others, led by the African-American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, wanted to challenge segregation through political action.

Washington and Du Bois both have valid strategies; Washington believing that blacks could advance themselves faster through hard work than by demands for equal rights, Du Bois declaring that African Americans must speak out constantly against discrimination. During the 187

0’s, the principle of segregation by race extended into every area of Southern life, from railroads to restaurants, hotels, hospitals and schools. Any area of life that was not segregated by law was segregated by custom and practice. In 1873 the Supreme Court found that the Fourteenth Amendment granted no new privileges or immunities to protect African Americans from state power. In 1883, furthermore, it ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prevent individuals, as opposed to states, from practicing discrimination. An example would be Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), where the Court found that "separate but equal" public accommodations for African Americans, such as trains and restaurants, did not violate their rights. Cases such as there brought up new voices advocating civil equality, and the strategies by which they are achieved. One of these voices was that of Booker T. Washington, an educator and the most prominent black leader of his day. He grew up as a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, born to a white slave-holding father and a slave mother. In his famous Atlanta Compromise Address, Booker T. Washington used the saying “cast down your bucket” as a metaphor for deserting racist ideas. He stated that it is only in the South that “a negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world,” that the Negro race can only succeed until they learn dignity from menial farm labor. He supported the idea that a “negro can only survive through submission,” that social equality cannot be achieved through assertiveness, but rather by earning it. Washington wanted blacks to try and get along in society. He encouraged blacks to become educated and to work in agriculture and industry, to accept their second-class status in American society. Washington wanted blacks to stay submissive until the time was right.

Through an analysis of the differences between these two men, one will argue that, although they disagreed over the direction of the struggle for equality, the differences between these two men actually enhanced the status of Black Am

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