Social and Economic Equality of African Americans in AmericaThe fight for social and economic equality of Blacks in America has been long and slow. It is sometimes surprising that progress has been made in the arena of racial equality; any attempted breakthrough seems to be diluted by losses elsewhere. For every convicted “Stacey Koons,” there seems to be a Texaco executive waiting to send black people back into the past. Throughout the fight for equal rights, there have been courageous black leaders at the forefront of every single movement. From early activists like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, to civil rights and radical leaders of the 1960s like Martin Luther King. , Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, the progress made toward full equality is the result of the visionary leadership of these courageous individuals. This does not imply, however, that there has ever been widespread agreement within the black community on the strategy or that the actions of prominent black leaders have met with strong support from those who would benefit from these actions. This report will examine the influence of two “first era” Black Activists: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. Through an analysis of the ideological differences between these two men, the writer will argue that although they disagreed on the direction of the fight for equality, the differences between these two men actually improved the status of black Americans in the fight for equality racial. We will look specifically at the events leading up to and surrounding the "Atlanta Compromise" in 1895. To understand the differences in the philosophies of Washington and Dubois, it is helpful to know something about their backgrounds. Booker T. Washington, born a slave in 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia, could be described as a pragmatist. He could only attend school three months a year, while the remaining nine months were spent working in the coal mines. He developed the idea of ​​blacks becoming skilled tradesmen as a useful stepping stone to respect from the white majority and future full equality. Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute and helped found Tuskeegee Institute, a black trade school. His essential strategy for the advancement of black Americans was for them to reach enha...... middle of paper ...... become more mainstream, become more and more conservative, and this did not please DuBois, who left the organization in 1934. He returned later but was ultimately shunned by black leadership both inside and outside the NAACP, especially after expressing admiration for the USSR. In the political climate of the late 1940s and 1950s, any hint of a pro-Communist attitude - black or white - was unwelcome among any group with a national political agenda. We can see, then, that neither Washington's appeasement strategy nor DuBois's plan for an elite black intelligentsia would have been fully successful in elevating black Americans to a position of equality. However, perhaps it was not just the leadership of a single black man that encouraged African Americans to demand full social and economic equality. Perhaps the fact that there was a public dialogue in itself encouraged black equality more than the philosophy of any prominent black man. After all, concepts like equality are exactly that: concepts. As such, it is up to each of us to decide how we see ourselves in relation to others; higher or lower, equal or not equal, the choice is ultimately ours.