Booker T. Washington Versus W. E. B. Du Bois

To draw a contrast to Washington’s moral values, I use another prominent black leader, W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963). Du Bois and Washington may have shared a common desire for the higher good, but Du Bois differed on how to achieve it. Du Bois emphasized “the Talented Tenth,” the best and the brightest black people, seeking to advance this small group in elite institutions and positions of influence and power. Du Bois’s admirers have sometimes characterized Washington as an “Uncle Tom,” a black man who wishes to ingratiate himself to white people rather than stand up against the injustices done to black people.

Washington’s view of higher things prioritized self-​help and a bottom-​up view of society; Washington preached the cultivating of individual economic independence rather than reliance on either political power or government support. Du Bois promoted philosophical enlightenment and a more top-​down approach to black society, emphasizing collegiate education and political activism. With political sway, black people would gain governmental services and benefits. Also, Du Bois’s orientation toward morals was less religious.

Du Bois levels four charges against Washington:

The four charges—which I have numbered in the quotation above—are unfounded. It can be said that Washington did not focus on injustices, politics, and what Du Bois called the “Talented Tenth,” but it would be another thing to say that he “apologizes,” “belittles,” or “opposes,” as Du Bois has it.

Du Bois was only twelve years junior to Washington, but he lived to 1963, whereas Washington died in 1915. During Du Bois’s life, academic and elite culture celebrated him and elevated his views, while they generally neglected, misrepresented, and often rejected Washington’s spirit and teachings. I now consider Du Bois’s four charges enumerated in the quotation above.

Du Bois accuses Washington of letting white people get away with injustices done to black Americans in both the North and the South. Washington acknowledges that he stresses the better side of black life, rather than the worse. He observes in The Man Farthest Down, “Not infrequently, when in my public speeches I have made some reference to the condition of the Negro in the South, certain members of my own race in the North have objected because, they said, I did not paint conditions in the South black enough.“³

The first and second chapters of his first book The Future of the American Negro (1899) are on slavery and the mistreatment of black people. Chapter 2 is titled “Responsibility of the Whole Country for the Negro.”⁴ Here, Washington does not excuse the white people of the South. Rather, he makes the case that everyone must take responsibility for the current situation black people find themselves in.

Washington wrote two books dedicated almost entirely to slavery and the mistreatment of black people in America, The Story of the Negro (two volumes)⁵ and The Story of Slavery.⁶ In addition to the books previously mentioned, there is A New Negro for a New Century, Chapters 7–13;⁷ The Negro in the South, Chapter 1;⁸ his two autobiographies;⁹ and his biography of Frederick Douglass.¹⁰ All of these focus heavily on the injustice of slavery and the related acts of discrimination.

Washington writes, “Every race, like every individual, should be swift to protest against injustice and wrongs, but no race must be content with mere protests.”¹¹ Washington admits that “[he] emphasized the opportunities rather than the wrongs of the Negro in the South.“¹² He does not see this as an apology for white people’s bad treatment, however. He is even-​handed in his assessment. “The white man in the South has not only a serious duty and responsibility, but the Negro has a duty and responsibility in this matter.“¹³ It is as though Du Bois ignores all of Washington’s other writings. Washington both embraced black people’s responsibility to lift themselves and condemned the wrongs of slavery and racial discrimination.

Du Bois compares black suffrage to the French Revolution saying: “[It is] only by arming every hand with a ballot, — with the right to have a voice in the policy of the state, — that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained.”¹⁴ I believe he intentionally used the image of the French Revolution to suggest the idea of rebellion, and possibly the killing of the aristocracy as a precondition to vote—evoking visions of a black insurrection. This is the type of talk Washington discourages as it creates distrust and fear of black people, which is counterproductive to cooperation and integration. 

In The Future of the American Negro, Washington demands equal rights and equal treatment for black people. Washington writes, “I do not favour the Negro’s giving up anything which is fundamental and which has been guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the United States. It is not best for him to relinquish any of his rights; nor would his doing so be best for the Southern white man.”¹⁵

He does, however, differ from Du Bois in how he approaches obtaining and protecting those rights. Washington makes well-​articulated arguments based on fundamental voting principles consistent with political and public choice theory. While Du Bois used the podium and press to make demands, Washington demanded rule of law and enforcement of equal rights under the Constitution. Washington would go as far as to have “secretly managed and financed” a constitutional fight against disenfranchisement in Louisiana. “The Louisiana case began a pattern of behind-​the-​scenes civil-​rights activism that would characterize Washington’s leadership for the next decade.”¹⁶ Washington fought for voting rights but sometimes in a discreet fashion.

Washington understood firsthand that allowing ignorant masses to vote does not help the ignorant masses, as the uninformed or apathetic are easily tricked into voting against their own interests. Discussing the Reconstruction era, in which all black men were given the right to vote, Washington argues that political party activists’ “main purpose appears to have been, for selfish ends in too many instances, merely to control his vote. The history of the reconstruction era will show that this was unfortunate for all the parties in interest.”¹⁷ He adds, “I do not believe that the Negro was so much at fault for entering so largely into politics, and for the mistakes that were made in too many cases, as were the unscrupulous white leaders who got the Negro’s confidence and controlled his vote to further their own ends, regardless, in many cases, of the permanent welfare of the Negro.”¹⁸

Du Bois, too, expresses concern about the ignorance of black people and how it leads to poor decision–making.¹⁹ Du Bois also complains about “the evil consequences of a headless misguided rabble.”²⁰ While both men acknowledge ignorant voters as a problem, Washington’s position is that it is okay to limit voting as long as the limitations are equally applied. Du Bois’s position is that he wants to train leaders that can control the “misguided rabble” to give the rabble a head.

Du Bois’s third charge refers to damages to black masculinity caused by treating black men as inferiors. This accusation against Washington must be looked at in two parts: first, how Washington addresses the idea of caste distinctions; second, Du Bois’s view of emasculation and manliness.

In 1896, the “separate but equal” doctrine was established by the Supreme Court in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The court upheld racial segregation but required equality under the law, equal treatment, and access to equivalent facilities. As Washington points out, the problem is not with the law but with failure to enforce equal treatment under the law. Washington opposed any disparity in treatment under the law, including a social caste system, which would be a clear violation of the letter of the law. A social caste system treats each caste differently, provides privileges to upper castes, prevents social mobility, and condemns each caste to specific occupational roles. This would clearly violate Washington’s demand for equal treatment. 

Washington wrote, “I don’t want to see any of our citizens claiming or receiving favors because he is of a certain race, color or creed, but I want to see every American citizen treated on his merits.“²¹ While Du Bois complained about a lack of black political representation, Washington emphasized merit and believed that if black people did their part, they would naturally achieve representation. Washington emphasized merit across all walks of life: “I said that any individual who learned to do something better than anybody else, learned to do a common thing in an uncommon manner, had solved his problem.“²² Be good at what you do and no one will look down on you. Everyone must respect a person who is indispensable “regardless of the colour of his skin, and that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other people wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be respected.“²³ 

One could insist that separate facilities could never be equal and must be eliminated, but that is not the argument made by Du Bois. Instead, he argues that segregation is emasculating, while denigrating Washington’s ideas. Washington’s program focused on bringing dignity and pride back to physical labor, an attitude that would be uplifting to black people and would impress white people: “As a race there are two things we must learn to do, one is to put brains into the common occupations of life, and the other is to dignify common labor.“²⁴ As Marcus Bruce writes in the introduction to Washington’s The Story of My Life and Work, “Believing manual labor a morally transformative experience and a sign of character … Washington would forever extol the virtues and dignity of hard work he had learned.“²⁵ Du Bois should have embraced work and physical labor as at least as masculine as academic study.

For both Washington and Du Bois, education was the cornerstone of black improvement. But they viewed its role quite differently.

W. E. B. Du Bois promoted traditional university education for the elites among black Americans, whom he coined “the Talented Tenth,” the title of a chapter published in the 1903 book The Negro Problem. In the chapter, Du Bois states that he has three goals: “first to show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among American Negroes have been worthy of leadership; secondly, to show how these men may be educated and developed; and thirdly, to show their relation to the Negro problem.”²⁶

Du Bois holds out Atlanta University as the model for higher education. This model curriculum consisted of the following subjects:

This collection of subjects is representative of higher education at the time, but this inefficient one-​size-​fits-​all approach is in stark contrast to Washington’s advocacy for specialization, vocational learning, and practicality.

Washington felt that education should prepare people for real life, mature them, and create responsible people who could be role models in the community. “We are trying to turn out men and women who are able to do something that the world wants done, that the world needs to have done. Just in proportion as you can comply with that demand you will find that there is a place for you.”²⁷ Most people will never be in the Talented Tenth, but all deserve an education that provides them with the skills that can give them purpose in life, a means to support themselves, and the ability to improve their communities, and, in doing so, improve the world.

The difference between Washington and Du Bois once again relates to their perspectives on higher values. Washington sees his graduates as having a higher potential to achieve success with vocational skills suited for the labor market, a positive attitude, humble demeanor, and entrepreneurial perspective. Du Bois would likely look at these people as career-​focused churchgoers driven by money and guided by superstition. The college intellectual whom Washington thinks of as superficial, arrogant, and not ready for the real world Du Bois would likely consider sophisticated leadership material. Neither is wholly wrong, but the difference between their sensibilities regarding the pursuit of higher things is clear.

The following table compares Washington and Du Bois’s views on what constitutes “higher” values, education, and progress.

Washington and Du Bois each wanted to help the black people of America. Washington believed that, with the right education and mindset, black people had the potential to be independent, moral, and productive. Du Bois subscribed to the elitist concept that the average person is not capable of making good decisions for himself or herself and therefore must be led, motivated, and subdued by those who are more intelligent, those capable of seeing the big picture and understanding the nuances of morality. It is the classic dichotomy between Washington’s view that believes in the potential of virtue in the everyman and the elitist view that believes in the few over the masses. Washington’s faith in the individual and favor for his or her self-​mastery is aligned with a classical liberal attitude toward politics. In contrast, the themes of Du Bois tended to flow into a politics that tends to favor the governmentalization of social affairs.

Booker T. Washington’s conception of the “higher” is clearly inspired by Christianity and a liberal moral philosophy. For Washington, moral refinement and spiritual elevation is the pathway to social equality and material advancement. He viewed personal industry, discipline, and service as acts of moral duty rather than mere instruments of economic success. In Washington’s synthesis, the ascent from ignorance to usefulness will be rewarded with acceptance and influence but, more importantly, with a feeling of individual worth and accomplishment. Even if reliance on the government could create financial equality, it would destroy the dignity of the community and the feeling of worth and accomplishment of the individuals. The higher life, in Washington’s framework, fulfills both civic and spiritual obligations—integrating the moral education of the soul with the practical education of the hand and mind.