Divergent Paths to Black Equality Essay After the Civil War the United States transitioned into a time

where freed men and women were attempting to raise their social, political, and economical standing in a community in which they had been held down in for over a century. Two leaders of the Black community, Booker T Washington and W.E.B Dubois had contrasting ideas on how to raise the Black mans standing in the community but both strove to set Blacks equal to Whites in the United States. Although Booker T Washington and W.E.B Dubois had vastly different ideas on how to raise the standings of freedmen both plans included draw backs, similarities, and included ideas that would launch freed black men and women towards social and political equality. Washington tells the freedmen to cast down their buckets towards making friends with the White southerners and cast down their buckets to become educated in mechanics, in commerce and in domestic service (Washington) His plan required the freedmen to accept segregation and to focus on economic equality (PBS). To achieve economic equality he wanted every Black male to focus on an industrial education (Washington) meaning going back to working in the fields and doing house work. Washingtons theory was that if Black men could grow economically White men would accept them as their equals (Gibson). Dubois plan for social equality was more aggressive than Washingtons; his philosophy was that they would receive social equality through education and political equality (PBS). First we would vote; with the right to vote goes everything Dubois says in his autobiography, if black men were able to vote they could make a change in the laws and give themselves rights. Dubois believed in the talented tenth, meaning ten percent of the Black population would become leaders if they were able to receive higher education. Though the philosophies of the two men were different, both of them were intended to have the same effect.