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  • Essay / Analysis by Booker T. Dubois - 1070

    DuBois criticized the "here and now" approach, because his concern was for the future of the black and white world in which they lived. In Souls of Black Folks, DuBois mentions a veil that must be uncovered for blacks and whites to “enter with tenderness and cheerfulness into these sad little lives and cast aside sullen hatred” (The Souls of Black Folks, 91). Removing such a veil would be difficult, but with the proper education, DuBois believed that one day someone would lift it. What is a good education? DuBois, unlike Washington, believed that an adequate education depended on higher education, not industrial education. A clear example of his disagreement with Washington is when he declares in his speech to the country: "When we call for education, we mean real education." We believe in work. We are workers ourselves, but work is not necessarily education” (www.digitalhistory.uh). He gave this speech to help spark the Niagara Movement, as he wanted African Americans to fight and protest for their equality. At the very least, he sought the right to vote for blacks. “With the right to vote everything goes: freedom, virility, the honor of our women, the chastity of our daughters, the right to work and the possibility of rising, and let no one listen to those who deny this » (www.digitalhistory.uh). In his time and even today, this right to vote means the right to move the country in one direction.