The different methods Booker Taliaferro Washington and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois used to try and obtain racial equality reminds me of the Aesop's Fable - The Hare and the Tortoise: A hare one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race." The Hare, believing his assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep. At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal, and was comfortably dozing after his fatigue.
Photograph of Booker Washington and Theodore Roose...
English: "The Oaks", former home of Booker T. Wash...
English: WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. Digitally retouched...Booker T. Washington reminds me of the Tortoise that ended up the winner, and W.E.B. Dubois the Hare.
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois had similar goals for African Americans: education, citizenship, equal rights, and better lives. But they had different views on how to achieve those goals, and different ideas of how fast they should be expected. I believe that many of these different expectations were because of the dissimilar ways that they grew up.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave on the Burroughs Plantation in Franklin County, Virginia on April 5, 1856. His mother was a slave and he didn't know who his father was, but his father was suspected to be a white man from another plantation. When the emancipation of slaves took place in Virginia he moved to West Virginia with his family. Since his family...