Comparing and contrasting Booker T. Washington's 'Up from Slavery' Essay

Comparing and contrasting Booker T. Washington's 'Up from Slavery' story and W.E.B. Du Bois 'The Souls of Black Folk' story - Essay Example Both men wrote extensively, and often from very different viewpoints, regarding the position of the black man in the post-Civil War American society, having a profound impact upon how these individuals were perceived by the greater American public and playing large roles in both establishing educational facilities for black children and in organizing advocacy groups for the black people. As can be seen in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, Washington felt that the best way to help the black man was to train him in ‘industrial’ type jobs while Du Bois, as can be seen in â€Å"Of the Training of Black Men† in The Souls of Black Folk, felt that the black man could best benefit from the same type of classical education deemed important for white men. Writing his autobiography in 1901, Washington details his rise from the ranks of slavery to the position of a degreed professor even as he highlights the various reasons why he feels an industrial education is the correct course of action for the majority of black men and women. Writing in an easy, flowing style, Washington works to present himself as clearly as possible, making it easy to understand the major events of his life as well as to see where the founding principles of his ideas came from. The concept of including technical education in with ‘book learning’ as he founded Tuskegee was one borrowed from Washington’s early educational experiences at the Hampton school, where students were encouraged to increase their academic knowledge while retaining a connection to their rural heritage. It was believed that by doing so, the students would be encouraged to re-invest their education into the communities from which they came, thereby helping to elevate the situation of the entire race. â€Å"We wanted to give them such a practical knowledge of some one industry, together