Washington and WEB Dubois were radical men of their time, and each managed to have great contributions to the overall welfare of blacks. However, their methods for increasing black status differed greatly. While Booker T. Washington believed that respect for blacks would come gradually through education, WEB Dubois felt that black people should protest against their fate. Although Booker T. Washington's methods were appropriate in that past time, WEB Dubois had some good points that fit in more with modern society.
Born a slave, Booker T. Washington was an educated man who gave his life to promote the education of blacks, and believed strongly that education was the first step to acceptance. He was not wealthy, and saved pennies for his own schooling by sleeping under a board sidewalk. Washington started an industrial school for blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama, teaching the students useful trades. Booker T. believed that "progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing". Therefore, the educating blacks would elevate them in society's opinion, and eventually prejudice would die away. Washington saw no shame in industrial professions if they would help black people live in comfort. "The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house." His school started a movement to educate blacks, because Booker T. felt that no black person should be given the franchise until he was educated. As a consequence of his life long work, the literacy of black people rose from 40% in 1890 to 65% in 1910. The percentage of blacks enrolled in school rose from 25% in 1877 to about 45% in 1915. During the late 1800s and early twentieth century, prejudice against blacks was very strong, and nobody wanted to see them in society's high paying jobs.
