The Views of William Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk and Booker T. Washington in Up from Slavery
Intellectual Views
Classical Education: Blacks should be taught classical education such as history and philosophy, as a means of preparing them for leadership roles. He advocated for higher education for Negros as a way of speeding up their rise into middle class status.
Industrial Education: Blacks should be taught practical subjects such as masonry, carpentry and agriculture to enhance self reliance. The pursuit of classical subjects deceived may black youths that they will get good jobs upon graduation and achieve economic success.
Compete for leadership roles; Black people should be allowed to assume political office. Du Bois argues that true progress for the black people will be achieved when they start enjoying equal rights of liberty, freedom and opportunity as their white counterparts.
Take subordinate roles: Blacks should take subordinate roles, because they were not yet prepared to take full responsibility. Therefore, they should be integrated into the white society and learn from their former masters
Economic Empowerment
Whit Collar jobs: African Americans should aspire for white collar jobs, and their education should prepare them for the white collar job market. In chapter VI, On the Training of Black Men, Du Bois argues that discrimination will only promote “the inferiority of black men.”
Learning a trade: As former slaves whose lives were restricted to manual labor, African Americans should first learn a trade to lay the foundation for their economic growth.
Similarities: The Need for Unity and Integration
Integration into the White society
Color Prejudice as a hindrance: Racial discrimination and prejudice stand as obstacles of the progress of the Negros and their full integration into America’s white dominated society.
The Benefit of Promoting Unity: in his speech, The Atlanta Exposition Address in chapter xiv, Washington argues that working in unity will benefit both Negros and Whites. He note that the Negros made up one third of the Southern population, and their economic significance cannot be disregarded.