W.e.b Dubois Vs. Booker T. Washington and Their Influence On America

Throughout history, the negro race has faced trials and tribulations, and through this hardship many great leaders have arissen. The 20th century manifested two of the greatest and most well-known African Americans of modern times; Dr. William Edward Burghardt Dubois and Mr. Booker Taliaferro Washington. Due to their different upbringings and lifestyles, they had extremely varied perspectives on what was best for African Americans. Although both men had different routes and ideas in order to reach a more equal society, they agreed that much work was necessary to improve the lives of their people through education and their different plans for the future of the African American race.

Early life and personal background

Dubois was born Februrary 23, 1868 into a free Negro family. Dubois grew up in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. While being raised by his mother with the help of his aunts and uncles. DuBois was raised around very few people of color. Dubois grew up oblivious to the fact that he was different from the others. “The exchange was merry, til one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,- refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain sadness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil (Gates 614).” Dubois has a barrier cast upon him, the barrier of race and being a minority in that day and age... 

In contrast, Mr. Washington’s early life was vastly different. He was born a slave and grew up on a plantation with his siblings and mother; who was a cook for the plantation. Washington didnt know the exact month or day he was born. Washington had a family oriented background, because family was all that he could depend on. They relied on each other to provide for the family and to look out for one another. washington’s mother later got married and the family moved to be with Washington’s step-father. “ Though I was a mere child, my stepfather put me and my brother at work in one of the furnaces. Often I began work as early as four o’clock in the morning (Gates 500).” Mr. Washington had very few resources growing up, he edevoured the most uncomfortable things in life. Mr. Washington expressed how low income his poverty stricken family was by explaining the clothes and shoes he had to wear. “The first pair of shoes that I recall wearing were wooden ones. They had a rough leather on the top, but the bottoms, which were about an inch thick, were of wood (Gates 494)”