Two Men, Two Ways
Read the following article. Then, read it a second time and use a colored pencil to underline their
differences in one color and circle their similarities in a 2nd color. Then complete the graphic organizer.
Many African Americans differed in their reactions to discrimination and “Jim Crow” laws. Two African
Americans rose to the challenge of achieving equality were Booker T. Washington and W. E. B Du Boise.
Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia, taught
himself to read. After he gained his freedom, he was determined to get an education.
When he learned of a school that would accept black students, Hampton Institute in
Hampton, VA, he walked most of the hundreds of miles to attend.
Education changed his life. He became a teacher and founded the Tuskegee Institute
in Alabama. At this college he founded, students received a vocational education and
learned skills in agriculture and technical skills. Students studied things like furniture
making and machine repair as well as English and chemistry. Washington accepted the
idea that segregation was a fact of life for the African Americans. White people supported
him and his ideas. Washington thought it was better to accept it, learn to live with it, and try to move
forward. Washington argued that equality would be achieved later when African Americans gained the
education and skills to become valuable members of their community.
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Boise came from a very different world
than Booker T Washington. He grew up in western Massachusetts, in an area with few black
families. He went to college in Tennessee, and there he saw firsthand the pain of
segregation. Like Washington, he believed that education was the answer. But Du Boise
believed that higher learning in math, sciences, and history, was the best way for African
Americans to achieve equality, not through vocational education, like construction or
farming. Du Boise was the first American to earn a PhD from Harvard University. He
became a professor and helped to start the NAACP which worked towards civil rights,
believing that African Americans deserved political, social and civil rights immediately.
Masoff, Joy. "The Era of Jim Crow." Our America: 1865 to the Present. Weston, CT: Five Ponds, 2011. 80-81. Print.
Booker T Washington
W.E.B. Du Boise
3 Ways They Are Alike
1.
3.
2.
3 Ways They Are Different
Their own education
Thoughts on education
of African Americans
Accomplishments
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