The Next Step
Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.
Eoin
Lynch
April
5, 2004
DWC
– Prof. Bonney
The Civil Rights movement did not follow a smooth path. The progress
made did not happen over night and wouldn’t have happened without two
influential leaders. Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. were
crucial leaders in the African-American struggle for civil rights. Without these two men the civil rights
movement would have turned out much different, and most likely would have been
a blood bath. The two dealt with the same problems at totally different
times. Washington published his most
famous piece of work Up From Slavery in 1901, while King was at his peak
of his leadership in 1963. Even thought
the two were sixty years apart, the two dealt with the struggle of equal
rights.
However, these two had completely different views on what the next step
should have been for African-Americans and how they should go about acquiring
their equal rights.
Booker T. Washington was born into
slavery in 1856. He was born in the
south on a farm in Franklin County, Virginia, where his mother worked the
fields. His father was a white man,
probably his owner. Washington was born
just before the beginning of the Civil War (1861-1865), and was freed from
slavery in 1862 with the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery. With his new freedom in 1872 he attended
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and stayed there for three years. He
moved on from here to teach in West Virginia.
He then moved to D.C. to continue his education.
Moving to the cities like D.C. was a trend at this time as many felt
there was great opportunity for riches waiting for them there. Washington felt
that it was important to get an education and the need for all blacks to do so
also. However, he didn’t agree with the
new attitude that many African-Americans had adopted. Many had started to think that the slightest
education would free them from the labor jobs they had always worked. Many became teachers and preachers; some knew
very little and didn’t belong in either profession. Also the new ability to take office was very
enticing to many. In some of these cases
the individuals had little to no education and had poor morals. This agitated Washington greatly. He noticed that many of these people found
themselves out of work as quickly as they had reached office. Many of them were forced back out onto the
streets and into poverty.
“How many
times I wished then, and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I
might remove the great bulk of these people into the country districts and
plant them upon the soil…where all nations and races that have ever succeeded
have gotten their starts…a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but
one that nevertheless is real.” (US)
This idea or wish
became the foundation of his plans and the plans he had for his people. His
solution to their struggle was to build a foundation from the bottom and grow
from there. He was witnessed many girls
go off to school learn new trades and skills, but had no opportunity to uses
them once out in the real world. Instead
they developed new higher wants yet their ability to afford these new things
hadn’t changed. In 1881 he opens the
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, in Tuskegee, Alabama. At his institution he gave a balanced
education. He gave both an industrial
and academic education. This way they
would become educated and also keep there trades in other fields. He believed that it was important to earn
the respect from whites. They couldn’t
just expect to start at the top. It was
important “cast down your bucket where you are”(US) and make progress from
there. In time African- Americans would
work their way up and would be on an equal level. “In all things that are purely social we can
be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to
mutual progress.”(US) The
African-Americans had built the south.
They were the ones who did all the dirty work as the white-man sat back and
collected the riches. He felt they
couldn’t earn their respect like how they had earned their freedom. He believed social equality would come with
time, not over night.
Like Washington, Martin
Luther King Jr. was another great Civil Rights leader, except he came along
around sixty years after. Since
Washington many changes in Civil Rights had been made. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929.
Since Washington not a whole lot had changed with “time”. African Americans were considered separate but
equal. The whites wanted to keep the
blacks down. The two lived in separate
areas on different sides of town they could not buy or rent a home wherever
they chose, and went to school separately. African-Americans could not eat at
lunch counters, register in motels or share the same rest rooms with
whites. It was said that the two were
equal but they still were not.
African-American schools were poorly funded and the facilities were fare
inferior. This was what Washington
assumed would come with time. Sixty
years had passed and things hadn’t changed.
Many more rights had been given but respect hadn’t been rightfully given
to the African-Americans.
King was the President of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and gained large amounts of African-American
following. He was fighting a battle
against injustice. He along with many
were tired of unjust laws, and felt the time for equal rights was long over
due. He knew that these rights would not just be handed over to them. They need to act out and win them. “It is an
historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges
voluntarily…for years now I have heard the word “wait” it rings in the ear of
every Negro…” (LBJ)Many years had passed
since their independence and many unjust laws restricted their rights. In order to vote whites emplaced many tedious
restrictions. When African-Americans
showed up to vote they were tested on their knowledge of the Constitution. These tests were never given to White
individuals. Or while riding a bus an
African-American must give up ones seat for a White man.
King was a strong believer in non-violent resistance. He arranged many boy-cots, sit-inns, and
marches to prove points. He installed
four basic steps in his non-violent campaign; collection of the facts to
determine whether injustice exists; negotiation; self-purification; and direct
action. King was what was desperately
needed for the African-Americans he was extremely well educated and fought well
with words and actions. In his “Letter
from a Birmingham Jail” he quotes many great scholars and leaders of history to
back his argument. He quotes the likes
of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Martin Buber, and Socrates to name a few.
He also uses many similar incidents in history to reflect and compare to what
he is going through to make an exceptionally strong argument. One of the most powerful is that of Hitler.
King was right the time had come.
His actions were hard to resist, as he didn’t break many laws. He broke some laws but only those that he
found unjust. “I would agree with St. Augustine “an unjust law is no law at
all”.”(LBJ) He makes reference to that
fact that it wasn’t against the law what Hitler was doing, so does that make
what he was doing right? He makes it
hard for those to argue against him. His argument is for their “God given
rights”. Still there was large resistance from society.
On August 28, 1963 King delivered his most powerful speech that was
heard all over the country. He led
250,000 people in a march on Washington. "I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of their character”(IHD) This was part of the speech at the
Lincoln Memorial that goes down in history as one of the most powerful speeches
of all time and is the highlight of the whole Civil Rights movement. King will
always be scene as the main leader of the whole Civil Rights movement. He lived his life in terror and constant
threat of murder. He sacrificed all he
had spending time in jail for his cause. He knew the time was long over due and
he wasn’t going to make his kids wait for equal rights. If equal rights were ever going to earned he
was going to have lead them to it.
These two men are
extraordinary. It’s not possible or
right to judge who did or contributed more.
Both lived in hard times, and also different times. Washington was
right, African-Americans needed to get organized and plan their attack. In his day African-Americans had been
suppressed for so long that they needed to learn how to walk before run. It wasn’t until Martin Luther King, Jr. came
along that they found the leader that they had been waiting for. King was able
to organize and lead them in the right way to achieving their God given rights.
This is a horrible time in history that whites should feel ashamed for. But we still live in a world today that isn’t
perfect and is full of discrimination.
The world is in need of such strong leaders such as King and Washington. If more of our leaders or role models today
were as knowledgeable and in touch with their history as King and Washington we
would live in a much healthier world.
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