African – American Leaders

Standard 3.5 E.Q. What type of philosophies impacted the Reconstruction era? African – American Leaders

Determined to claim the full rights of citizenship in a democracy. • Responded to the Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy tests. • African American leaders emerged who were united in their determination to attain full citizenship but were divided on the best strategy to pursue it. Problems in the U.S.

Born a slave in the South and raised himself to a leadership position through his determination to receive an education and hard work. • Tuskegee Institute: provide vocational training to African Americans who knew only how to farm. • George Washington Carver: Developed new crops to aid poverty stricken cotton farmer of the region. Booker T. Washington

Lobbied behind the scenes for greater social and political rights, his public statements suggested that he was willing to accept the second class citizenship offered by Jim Crow laws etc. Booker T. Washington

Opposed Washington’s emphasis on vocational education and argued that all African Americans should have the opportunity for any education that fits their talents. • “Talented Tenth” W.E.B Dubois

Leader of the NAACP and the magazine “The Crisis” • African Americans were most often the last hired and the first fired. • It would be many years before the NAACP wold be successful in protecting the rights of Afircan Americans. • Brown v. Board Education (1854) W.E.B. Dubois

Educated in a Reconstruction freedom school as a teacher and a newspaper writer. • Experienced Jim Crow laws by being forcibly removed from a railroad car and forced to sit in a colored – only car. • Sued the railroad and segregated schools • Lynched in Memphis Ida Wells – Barnett

Objected Booker T. Washington strategy which she labeled as a accommodation. • Founding member of the NAACP, but left that group when it was not aggressive enough. • Worked with Jane Addams to prevent the Chicago public schools from being segregated and supported the cause of women’s suffrage. Ida Wells - Barnett

African – American Leaders