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Description:

While Booker T. Washington was happy with any sort of progress at first, W. E. B. Du Bois was carrying more of a "Go Big or Go Home" philosophy. Let's learn more about these two civil rights pioneers, and their ideas on the path to equality. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Not everyone was crazy about booker t washington spearheading

00:08

the anti Booker's was W. E. B. Dubois another scholarly african-american [Dubois appears]

00:13

raised in the north but mostly educated in the south while Booker T was on the

00:17

rise Dubois was living low as a teacher in the Jim Crow South well Dubois went

00:22

from segregated school to segregated school everywhere he saw the poverty of

00:27

black southerners and he was not down with it would have been kind of messed [Black men sitting on ground]

00:31

up if you were everywhere Dubois saw Jim Crow putting people in Chains [Man surrounded by metal chains]

00:36

politically socially psychologically and legally on the legal front those chains

00:42

were literal Dubois didn't disagree with everything Washington said like

00:46

Booker T Dubois wasn't a fan of lazy or criminal people and he saw moolah as the

00:50

path to freedom but their agreement came to a screeching halt right about there [Cars crash into each other]

00:54

Dubois thought that without the vote equal access to professional

00:58

opportunities and equal protection under the law progress just wasn't going to [Judge bangs gavel]

01:03

happen who voice thought Washington's ideas were setting up the black race to

01:08

fail Dubois thought that no matter how much black people tried to prove [Cake appears on a table]

01:12

themselves whites were always going to not be into the whole equality thing and

01:16

Dubois was right sorry Booker you still love you though he in Washington

01:21

disagreed over the past the progress but in the end both believe the road could [Dubois and Washington driving steam roller]

01:24

be paved what they didn't see was that the real problem Jim Crow had was with

01:28

success no matter how African Americans got their whites would be upset and gets [African American celebrating and white man appears with fire]

01:33

violent and burned things if blacks reach success when it comes to the

01:37

african-american experience calling America the land of opportunity seems a

01:41

thought is accurate is calling tobey maguire a more attractive spiderman than [Spidermen appear]

01:44

Andrew Garfield any time a black family started to make it they could be sure

01:48

there'd be an angry white mob on the prowl ready to harrahs intimidate and [White mob shouting]

01:53

terrorize being successful was about as suicidal as hiking mountain doom after [Man climbing mount doom]

01:57

frodo destroyed that ring remember well towards the end of his life Booker T

02:01

actually changed his tune a bit what pushed Washington over the edge a famous

02:05

director DW Griffith famously racist film The Birth of a Nation like many

02:11

super racist things back then this movie was a huge popular hit with [People watching movie at theater]

02:15

the white majority in this movie blacks are shown as villains brutes savages

02:20

buffoons and cowards Oh in a Klansman is the hero no joke seriously hugely [Klu Klux Klan man appears]

02:25

popular only like E.T level popular so yeah it's not hard to see why Birth of a

02:29

Nation pushed Booker T over the edge he joined many black leaders and pointing [Birth of a Nation pushes Booker over cliff edge]

02:33

out everything that was awful about the film and with a movie with that many

02:37

flaws pointing out every one of them was a real commitment nobody knows whether

02:41

this film made Washington's second-guessed of philosophies he'd been

02:44

preaching his whole life but well did he feel like he'd ever understood the true

02:48

depth of racism or was he disappointed that his people couldn't win the respect

02:52

of white society no probably a bit of both because Washington was a complex guy

02:57

in his final year of life Booker T may have looked to the new generation of [Man walking]

03:00

black activists for better answers the boys certainly had one hopefully DB was

03:06

nice enough not to say I told you so [Dubois and Washing ton appear together]

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