LeadershipIn Chapter 18, we learn that African Americans responded to discrimination and prejudice in different ways. Some refused to put up with it. One black leader, W.E.B. Du Bois, insisted that African Americans should not ask white Americans for their rights, but demand it of them. Other leaders took the opposite approach. For example, Booker T. Washington urged his fellow blacks to accept segregation for the time being. If they were patient, he argued, eventually their hard work and clean living would prove to whites that blacks were deserving of better treatment and equal citizenship. If you had been an African American during this period, which sort of leader do you think you would have followed?

In Chapter 18, we learn that African Americans responded to discrimination and prejudice in different ways. Some refused to put up with it. One black leader, W.E.B. Du Bois, insisted that African Americans should not ask white Americans for their rights, but demand it of them. Other leaders took the opposite approach. For example, Booker T. Washington urged his fellow blacks to accept segregation for the time being. If they were patient, he argued, eventually their hard work and clean living would prove to whites that blacks were deserving of better treatment and equal citizenship.

If you had been an African American during this period, which sort of leader do you think you would have followed?
I believe I would have followed the philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois. He believed in fighting for the rights of African Americans, and he had faith that his people could rise above the discrimination they faced. He wrote that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line” (Du Bois, 1903, p. 9). He was convinced that the only way African Americans could gain their rights was by standing up and demanding them. His famous words, “Let us, then, be sure that the demand for the ballot is put in such form that the nation must either admit our citizenship or admit that it is a sham” (Du Bois, 1910, p. 71) were a rallying cry for African Americans to fight for their rights. I think I would have admired Du Bois for his courage and conviction. I think he was right to call for African Americans to stand up for themselves and demand their rights. I would have supported him in his quest for justice and equality. On the other hand, I would have respected the approach of Booker T. Washington too. His strategy was to work for change without confrontation. He believed that African Americans should focus on education, economic success. Cont…