“For education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of

danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent," said W.E.B DuBois. DuBois, believed
that everyone should be educated, he fought for Black people to be able to receive an education
throughout his whole life. In fact, he fought for all Black Americans to have the same right as
white people all the way up to his death in 1963. W.E.B DuBois became an inspiration amongst
Black Americans, however not everyone agreed with his ideologies. W.E.B DuBois and Booker
T. Washington, were two inflectional black leaders with codirecting ideas on how Black people
should deal with segregation and racism in America. Both leaders influenced Black Americans,
however this essay will prove that W.E.B Dubois's ideas were more important to how Black
people preserved through the decades leading up to 2024, because Black people received rights
through actions that aligned with W.E.B Dubois's ideas, he founded the NAACP which majorly
impacted Black people, and Dubois fought against injustice that made life difficult for Black
Americans.
For starters W.E.B DuBois believed that Black Americans should fight back against
discrimination and fight for integration. Booker T. Washington believed that Black people
should ignore segregation for the time being and focus on ensuring economic stability. It was
through idea’s similar to DuBois's that Black Americans received rights in several
circumstances. For example, voting rights. The 15th amendment, which was ratified in 1870
during the reconstruction era after the civil war, said that male could be denied the right to vote
on account of, “race, color, or pervious condition of servitude.” In 1920 all woman received the
right to vote with the 19th amendment. However, white’s prevent Black people from voting
through literacy tests and acts of violence. As said in the text, “150 years and Counting” by the
National Museum of African American History and Culture, “In March 1965 Hosea Williams of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and John Lewis of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a march for voting rights in Alabama.
Six hundred marchers were stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma by Alabama law
enforcement officers and brutally attacked.” That same month President Lyndon B. Johnson
introduced the Voting Rights Act in Congress, which was passed a few months later. This Act
banned literacy tests, polling taxes, and gave the government authority to protect voters when
voting rights were threatened. This happened because those with similar ideas to DuBois fought
back. Even in the 21st century speaking out is how changes have been made. Activists fighting
as result of anti- black gun violence have been making changes. This is discussed in the text,
“Black Lives Matter Has Grown More Powerful, and More Divided” by John Eligon. Which
describes how in 2021 as result of the death of Breonna Taylor activists have been fighting back.
The text says, “In Chicago, activists have lobbied the city to fund a program that would dispatch
paramedics, instead of police officers, to people experiencing mental health crises.” Activists
also fought to get a Black woman elected as mayor of St. Lois for the first time, and protesters
took to the street in honor of Breonna Taylor. Thus, even in the 21st century many have taken on
DuBois's perspective on fighting back against white people and they have made a difference by
doing so.
Additionally, DuBois also influenced the fight for Black Americans rights himself, through co-
founding the NAACP, an organization which has fought for and won the rights of Black
Americans from its creation in 1909 to now in 2024. The NAACP was started with the goal of
following what the Niagara Movement had started. The Niagara movement as stated in, “How
W.E.B. Du Bois Helped Create the NAACP,” by Eudie Park, was formed because, “32 African
American activists, led by Du Bois, met on the Canadian side of Niagara, Ontario—a place
where segregation was not an issue the Niagara Movement convened for annual meetings in the
proceeding years,” As a result of a lack of resources the group came to an end. Activist Mary
White Ovington decided that she wanted to continue what the Niagara Movement had started but
in a bigger more impactful way. Leading to her, bringing in W.E.B DuBois and other Black
activists to create the NAACP. DuBois led that first get together in 1909 and brought together
many groups. His idea’s also majority affected the future of the NAACP’s goals, according to
“Our History” by the NAACP, “The NAACP mission is to ensure the political, educational,
equality of minority group citizens of states and eliminate race prejudice.” These goals closely
align with what W.E.B DuBois wanted. Further showing that the NAACP goals come from
W.E.B DuBois’s ideas. Throughout time the NAACP became known for fighting and winning
rights for Black Americans. Such as when Theragood Marshall, the leader of the legal defense
and educational fund, won the supreme court case of Brown vs. Board of education, which
declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This is discussed in the article,
“Brown vs. Board of Education,” by Brain Duigan, which discusses the NAACP’s process, it
states, “In the late 1940s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) began a concentrated effort to challenge the segregated school systems in various
states, including Kansas... the NAACP’s main argument was that segregation by its nature was a
violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.” Thus, the NAACP fought for
Black kids to be able to attend the same school as white kids. This reflects off W.E.B DuBois’s
ideas of equal education, which thus, influenced the NAACP’s fight in Brown vs. Board of
education, that case is the reason all Black and White students are able to attend school together
today.

While W.E.B DuBois encouraged the fight for Black rights, Booker T. Washington encouraged
Black people to find economic stability and learn a trade first. However, white people made it
incredibly difficult for Black Americans to receive economic stability because of the challenges
that they threw their way, W.E.B DuBois fought against this injustice to allow all Black
Americans to have opportunities. Aspect of DuBois’s life a sign of the racial injustice during his
life. DuBois was the first African American to receive a Harvard doctrine in 1895 despite the
fact that Harvard was founded in 1636. Due to racism and segregation is took 259 before a Black
person graduated from Harvard. White people prevented Black people from being able to live
their lives through violent actions. Melba Pattillo Beals experienced this firsthand in 1957 when
she and eight other students integrated into Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. White
students and parents worked hard to try to convince the little rock nine to leave the school. In an
interview with NPR, Beals describes how from an early age she was afraid of what white people
would do. “I was frightened that the Klan would ride. From a very early age, again, I watched the
parents around me pull the shades, quiet us all down to make our house look as though we were
being very good Negroes,” Beals experience even more fear when she integrated Central high.
“They started chasing us. We started running. We had parked the car at the end of that block, and
we had to make our way to this car. And I thought for sure we wouldn't make it,” Beals says as
she describes her first day at Central high when her and her mother were chased when trying to
enter the school. Thousands of people gathered to keep the nine students out of school. During
this time, Black Americans would also be punished for sitting at the front of the bus, or going to
a place that was labeled whites only. The Freedom Riders were a group of students who fought
against racism through riding at the front of buses in response they received a lot of violent
backlash. “On 4 May 1961, the freedom riders left Washington, D.C., in two buses and headed to
New Orleans. Although they faced resistance and arrests in Virginia, it was not until the riders
arrived in Rock Hill, South Carolina, that they encountered violence. The beating of Lewis and
another rider, coupled with the arrest of one participant for using a whites-only restroom,
attracted widespread media coverage,” says, the article “Freedom Riders” by Standford, which
describes John Lewis and the freedom riders. Freedom riders were arrested and violently
attacked just for sitting in the front of the bus and Melba Pattillo Beals, was chased and
throughout her time at Central high beaten, got things sprayed in her eyes, and was threatened
just for attending schools. These are just two example of the experiences that Black people had
because white people held them back and kept them from succeeding. This is why W.E.B
DuBois’s ideas were important to how Black people preserved, because for many Black
Americans all they could do was fight.

However, throughout his life Booker T. Washington took the stance that, “The individual who
can do something that the world wants done will in the end, make his way regardless of his
race,” as he said. Those in agreement with Washington may argue that throughout time Black
people were able to make a difference by doing what people wanted to be done would end up in
a better position. While it is true that those who worked hard throughout the decades leading up
to 2024 people such as Booker T. Washington who was born into slavery and won the respect of
President Theordore Roosevelt. In many cases being successful did not guarantee peaceful lives
for Black people. No matter a person's economic status, Black people were still prevented from
voting through literacy tests and violent acts. Also in World War II, 1.2 million Black service
members fought for America. Having people fight and defend America in the war was what
people wanted in this case, and the Black service members were successful in doing this,
however when they returned, they were not celebrated, and they continued to receive
discriminatory treatment. White service members experienced the benefits of the GI bill which
allowed them to have access to prestigious universities and loans that were used for white people
to buy fancy houses. Black service members did not experience any of these benefits and racially
motivated practices such as red lining, prevented Black people, including service members from
buying houses. In the end, Black service members were doing what Americans wanted but they
did not make their way. Proving, that Booker T. Washingtons ideologies did not allow Black
people to persevere and find success.

Ultimately, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois were two leaders who influenced and
inspired Black Americans throughout times of discrimination and bigotry. Nevertheless, W.E.B
DuBois’s ideas were more important to how Black people persevered throughout the decades
leading up to 2024. His ideas on fighting against the whites are what won Black Americans their
rights in many circumstances, additionally he helped create the National Assocation for the
Advancement of Black people (NAACP) and his ideas are much like those of the organization,
which has won rights for Black Americans. DuBois’s ideas also take into consideration the fact
the white’s held back Black people through discriminatory practices, his ideas are in many cases
the only possibility for Black Americans to win their rights. Nonetheless, without leaders such as
W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington, we would still be in the same place.